Greenland Water Reclamation Facility
JEA has completed the design and pre-construction stages of a project on a new water reclamation facility on Jacksonville’s south side. The Greenland Water Reclamation Facility (WRF), will be the first newly constructed water reclamation facility in Duval County in over 45 years, and is located near E-Town, across Highway 9B, adjacent to JEA’s Greenland Energy Center.
Once in operation, this facility will treat an average of over 4 million gallons of wastewater daily for the purpose of reclaiming treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. Future expansion on the site will allow the addition of up to 12 million gallons of treatment capacity. The facility will initially serve an existing 22,800 customers, allowing for future growth for years to come on the City’s south side.
This $150M project will result in a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly facility with zero effluent (wastewater) discharge. This means all wastewater will be disinfected and distributed right back into the reuse system, as opposed to being discharged into natural wetlands or into the St. Johns River.
The project will include construction to support reuse water output, and will include equipment such as headworks, bioreactors, clarifiers, filters and ultraviolet disinfection, solids dewatering facility, reclaimed water storage tank, and chemical systems. Once completed, the new facility will then be brought “on line” with an estimated in-service date of November 2024*.
While the construction will take place behind the wooded and fenced areas of the facility, you may notice increased large truck traffic in the area hauling and delivering equipment. Additionally, due to the plant’s location, residents should not detect any odor during construction or after operation. We will do our best to complete this work as quickly and safely as possible.
Reclaimed Water Main and Sanitary Sewer Force Main Installations - SR-9B to Greenland Energy Center
Greenland Reclaim Water Main Project
Greenland Sanitary Sewer Force Main Project
Media Coverage of the Project
jacksonville.com | The Florida Times-Union - May 2022
Site Renderings and Progress Photos
Greenland Water Reclamation Facility Q & A
Q: How many customers will be served by the facility?
A. The facility initially will treat sewage for an area serving 28,800 customers.
Q: What is the cost for the project?
A: The total budget is approximately $150 million.
Q: Where does that funding come from?
A. The facility’s budget comes from JEA’s capital projects budget.
Q: What is a Water Reclamation Facility?
A. A facility that treats sewage in a multi-step process, removing solids and impurities and cleansing water for beneficial reuse. The reclaimed water is then permitted to be used for customers’
irrigation needs. One of the key benefits of using reclaimed water is that instead of using our precious potable (drinking) water supply for irrigation, reclaimed water is used for that purpose. Using reclaimed water conserves potable water, which
is scarce.
Q: Why is JEA building this facility?
A. JEA is building the Greenland facility to serve customers and support the Southside’s growing population.
Q: Is this part of the new purified water plan?
A. No, this facility will produce reclaimed water for irrigation purposes.
JEA’s plans for purified water will take excess reclaimed water and purify it through a multi-barrier process
to potable water quality. This is the same purification process being used by other communities around the country and the world. JEA’s H2.0 demonstration facility is scheduled to break ground for construction in late 2022. The facility will be
used for additional testing, process optimization, staff training and as a visitor center to educate the community about water and the H2.0 project. In the future the purified water can be used to replenish the aquifer.
Is this part of JEA’s plans to reduce surface water
discharge?
A. Yes, this facility is a zero-discharge plant; it will not be discharging to surface water. JEA supports the concept of beneficially reusing water and minimizing the discharge to the river. This plant was designed with that in mind.
Glossary of Terms
H2.0 – Water supply and distribution service, namely, alternative water supply of purified water to be used for consumption and as a source of water supply. Note it is a number “zero”, not to be confused with “H2.O” with the letter “O”.
Purified Water – refers to final product water from the Facility, used in lieu of “treated water”, “effluent”, etc.
Purification – refers to advanced treatment of reclaimed water to product water suitable for potable reuse, used in lieu of “treatment”, “full advanced treatment” or “advanced treatment”
Concentrate – refers to concentrated waste stream produced by RO process, use in lieu of “brine”
Wastewater – JEA is phasing out this outdated term as water is not “wasted”. WRFs produce reclaimed water for irrigation that reduce the use of precious potable water supply for that purpose. WRFs also produce natural gas used for energy and biosolids used as fertilizer. Years ago, all wastewater treatment plants were renamed water reclamation facilities to increase accuracy of the service they provide. Limit or eliminate use, replace with sewer or reclaimed water where applicable.
Reclaimed water – when referring to reclaimed water add context ‘further purify reclaimed water to drinking water quality.’
Purification Process – refers to multiple barrier treatment steps utilized for purification. Use this in lieu of “train” which could be mistaken for a mode of transportation.
Facility – refers to a water treatment, reclamation, or purification location designed to improve the quality of water at that location. Used in lieu of “plant” which could be mistaken for a living organism.
Discharge – as we move towards addressing Florida Senate Bill 64 and the “Elimination of Non-Beneficial Surface Water Discharge” this term should be phased out. Right now, excess water is conveyed/sent to the river. For what we send to the reiver, we have traditionally used “effluent”, but it could be called excess “reclaimed” (could be the same or similar quality as reclaimed).
Membrane filtration – Membrane filtration is sometimes referred to as (MF). However, for H2.0, since universal skids can utilize microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) modules, membrane filtration is not referred to as MF to avoid confusion with microfiltration (MF).
JEA's Water Purification Program - H2.0
Learn more about JEA's Purified Water Program.
