Local Water Quality
PFAS Forever Chemicals in Jacksonville, FL: What JEA Water Users Need to Know
Jacksonville is Florida's largest city by area — a sprawling, river-dominated metropolis with a deep military presence, industrial heritage, and a JEA (Jacksonville Electric Authority) water system that serves over a million customers across the region. PFAS contamination in drinking water is a concern that Jacksonville homeowners are increasingly asking about, and the city's specific characteristics make it an important topic. Here's the complete picture.
JEA's Water Supply System
JEA operates one of the largest utility systems in Florida, drawing primarily from the Floridan Aquifer through multiple wellfields distributed across Duval County and extending into adjacent counties. The aquifer produces water with the characteristic North Florida quality profile: moderate hardness (8 to 14 GPG in most Jacksonville service areas) and naturally occurring compounds from limestone geology.
Unlike the extremely hard Southwest and Central Florida supplies, Jacksonville's Floridan Aquifer water is moderately mineralized — one reason Jacksonville sees somewhat less extreme scale issues than Tampa or Naples. JEA treats with chloramines for distribution system disinfection and uses aeration to manage hydrogen sulfide, which can be present in certain wellfield zones.
JEA also draws supplemental surface water from the Floridan Aquifer's connected system and processes some water through its Greenland Water Treatment Plant, which uses an advanced treatment train including filtration and disinfection before distribution.
Jacksonville's Military Dimension and PFAS
Jacksonville is home to one of the largest concentrations of military installations in the southeastern United States. Naval Station Mayport, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, and Cecil Field (now Cecil Airport, a former naval air station) have all been significant AFFF users with documented PFAS contamination histories.
Naval Air Station Jacksonville has been investigated by the Navy for groundwater PFAS contamination from historical AFFF use in fire training operations. Monitoring wells around NAS Jacksonville have detected PFAS at elevated concentrations in the shallow aquifer. The extent of the plume and its relationship to JEA's deeper Floridan Aquifer wellfields has been a subject of ongoing environmental investigation.
Cecil Airport (former NAS Cecil Field) has extensive AFFF contamination history from decades of naval aviation operations. DEP and EPA have been involved in remediation planning. The site's location in western Duval County creates groundwater quality concerns for that corridor.
Mayport Naval Station, located on the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the St. Johns River, has documented PFAS contamination from AFFF use in its shipboard and shore-based operations.
St. Johns River Water Quality and PFAS
The St. Johns River flows through Jacksonville and historically served as a water supply source for portions of the city. While JEA's current supply relies primarily on groundwater, the St. Johns carries PFAS loading from its watershed — a slow-moving river that drains a substantial portion of Central Florida's developed areas. Industrial discharge histories along the river, stormwater inputs, and wastewater effluent contribute diffuse PFAS to the river system.
Industrial sites along Jacksonville's Northbank and Southbank — the former Kerr-McGee site, former industrial properties along Beaver Street and in the industrial corridor east of downtown — have historical chemical use records that may include PFAS-containing materials. Environmental investigation of these sites has generated monitoring data that contributes to the broader PFAS picture for the Jacksonville urban area.
JEA's UCMR5 Results
JEA completed PFAS testing under EPA's UCMR5 program. Results documented detectable concentrations of several PFAS compounds in JEA's supply, primarily associated with the broader regional contamination context from the military installations and industrial history described above. Based on publicly available UCMR5 data, JEA's PFAS levels have been reported below the new 2024 EPA MCLs for primary regulated compounds — but the presence of multiple compounds at detectable levels places JEA in the category of utilities that will face ongoing monitoring obligations and potentially treatment obligations as the regulatory framework continues to tighten.
What Jacksonville Homeowners Can Do
For JEA customers in Jacksonville who want to minimize PFAS exposure at their household level, the most effective approach is a point-of-use reverse osmosis system at the kitchen tap. RO technology achieves 95-99%+ rejection of regulated PFAS compounds including PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, and HFPO-DA.
Jacksonville-specific considerations for choosing an RO system:
- Look for NSF/ANSI P473 certification — this specifically validates PFOA and PFOS removal performance
- Carbon pre-filtration is essential for JEA's chloramine system — protects the membrane and provides first-pass PFAS adsorption
- For properties near NAS Jacksonville, Cecil Airport, or Mayport, testing is particularly advisable before and after filtration to establish a baseline
- Annual membrane performance testing (TDS rejection) ensures the system continues performing to specification
Looking Ahead
Jacksonville's military-heavy profile means PFAS contamination management will be an ongoing environmental story for the region. The Department of Defense has committed to remediation at contaminated installations, but those processes take years to decades. In the interim, household-level filtration is the practical tool available to Jacksonville residents who want to reduce their exposure. RO systems provide that reduction reliably, comprehensively, and independently of whatever the broader remediation timeline looks like.