Ken Sulak sent this food for thought about Water First North Florida (WFNF). I’ve added a few links.

Synopsis of JEA twofold water problem & potential rational solutions to be considered in lieu of WFNF:

Maintext:

1. Provide sufficient freshwater to meet 120-160 MGPD demands of urban area of 1.6 million population,
2. solve the need to treat and discharge 40-50 MGPD of sewage wastewater as per beneficial use requirements of 2021 Senate Bill 64.

Subtext:

1. Do something wise and cost effective in the context of volume and flow restoration to offset the current JEA ~120 MGPD withdrawal of Floridian Aquifer groundwater from the Suwannee River basin. Note that 40 MGPD return does little to truly offset the ~120 MGPD current withdrawal rate. Also, after evaporative and transpiration losses in the created marshes, the real volume that would be returned to the subterranean aquifer would be more like 35 MGPD.
2. Simultaneously do something equally wise and appropriate and compliant with SB 64 – using JEA Buckman plant treated effluent for created marsh depuration and discharge locally within the St. Johns WMD, which has its own longstanding serious aquatic recharge needs due to JEA withdrawals lowering the water table within district.

   
   Replace WFNF with desalination and rehydration of SJRWMD wetlands –Ken Sulak 2026-04-02

A logical cost-effective solution to 1A: construct a 150-200 MGPD desalination plant on the lower St. Johns River—at cost of comparative modern reverse osmosis plants elsewhere in the world ~$1.0-1.5 billion (close to the probably underestimated construction cost of the WFMF 90 mile pipeline). Pipeline operation and maintenance costs not included. In that context, note that 40 million gallons of water weighs 332 million lbs. That weight of water to be piped 90 miles, and lifted along the route from sealevel at Jacksonville to an elevation of ~100+ ft. Then there is frictional energy loss /cost of water being pumped through a pipe. It will consume considerable energy (electricity to power large volume pumping stations) to accomplish this. continuously forever.

A logical cost-effective solution to 2): Upgrade the treatment regime at the Buckman plant, pipe the more completely treated effluent a much shorter distance, with substantially less elevation lift, to created marshes within the persistently depleted areas within the SJRWMD where JEA groundwater withdrawals have dropped the water table, leaving a great many lakes seriously and persistently depleted, and residents potentially contending with water use restrictions).

The stated rationale for discharging JEA wastewater onto the landscape via created marshes is for aquatic system restoration. If this is indeed true, then JEA and SJRWMD should look much closer to home, within their own St. Johns district. East of US 301, which follows the elevated Trail Ridge from north to south, there are numerous lakes large and small that have been seriously depleted, if not totally dry, for much of the past 30 years. There is a whole string of such lakes flanking State Route 20 heading to Palatka. And many many others. Here are two notable examples among many that could benefit by some targeted recharge without an expensive pipeline out of the district:

1. Little Lake Johnson, the former popular swimming lake within Goldhead Branch State Park. The lake used to lap up against a stone wall. Now the lake is extremely shallow and its edge is as much as 60 meters from that old wall. There are shrubs growing in much of what used to be lake—all that green in the image below.

   
   Goldhead Branch State Park, 2021-05-01 –Ken Sulak

2. Lake Brooklyn, Keystone, a once large continuous lake, now fragmented into several basins, and more often than not seriously depleted of water, verging sometimes upon totally dry. Large area of the lake bottom are frequently dry for long periods, such that terrestrial grasses and sizable shrubs grow on the exposed lake bottom.

Lake Brooklyn Keystone, 2017-01-01 –Ken Sulak

So—why pump that 40 MGPD 90 miles west where it is unwanted and potentially harmful to a sensitive aquifer rich in natural springs, and pump it out of an area within SJRWMD that could benefit from some serious within-basin recharge? I believe parts of this area are frequently under domestic water use restrictions? Tend to your own backyard first.

Ken

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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