Lower St. Johns River Compliance Report
Executive
Summary
In 1972, Congress
passed the Clean Water Act, a law that
marked a new direction in the management of
pollution discharged to our waterways. As
authorized by the Clean Water Act, the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permit program was created to
regulate point sources (e.g. a pipe) that
discharge pollutants into the waters of the
United States. In Florida, the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
has been authorized to administer the NPDES
permit program. Thus, DEP has the primary
legal authority to implement, oversee, and
enforce the permit process.
St. Johns Riverkeeper
and the Public Trust Environmental Law
Institute of Florida, Inc. initiated a study
to analyze the DEP NPDES permit data
specific to the St. Johns River. The groups
established an 20-month time frame, from
January 1, 2005 to August 31, 2006, as the
study period.
The purpose of the
Compliance Report is to: (1) evaluate the
effectiveness of facilities in complying
with the limits and conditions of their
NPDES permits, and (2) educate the public
and provide insight into how DEP oversees
the NPDES program and fulfills its
responsibility of protecting our waterways.
The results clearly indicate that problems
exist with the compliance of NPDES permits
and the administration and execution of the
NPDES program. This analysis serves to
document those shortcomings and provide
recommendations to address those problems.
Key Findings:
- The permit review
documented 252 violations of NPDES
permit limits or conditions and 46
Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) for a
total of 298 total violations during the
20-month study period. SSOs totaled
almost 266,000 gallons of material, with
the majority relating to sewage.
- Nitrogen-related
violations were the most frequent type
of violation with 73 incidences. Other
Water Quality issues were a close second
with 65 occurrences. Bacteria violations
numbered 44, and Oxygen related
violations totaled 26. There were 21
violations involving heavy metals,
followed by 12 violations involving
toxic chemicals. There were 11 flow
violations. When combined with the 46
SSO violations, flow and SSOs combine to
create a substantial problem.
- JEA’s Julington
Creek Water Reclamation Facility (WRF or
WWTF) led all facilities in the number
of violations with 37. The Julington
Creek wastewater treatment facility was
followed by Paradise Point WWTF with 27
violations. Hiawatha and Hart Point WWTF
each had 22 permit violations.
- JEA facilities,
the majority of which are wastewater
treatment facilities, violated their
permits a total of 64 times. JEA
facilities accounted for over 90% of the
SSO violations, 42 of the 46 events.
- The review noted
that DEP designated 27 facilities as
“Out-of-Compliance” and documented 36
various “compliance” related incidences.
Eighteen facilities were designated as
“Significantly-Out-of-Compliance”.
- A review of the
data indicates that some facilities were
allowed to operate for long periods of
time with an out-of-compliance
designation. In some cases, the time
period was over a year. For example, the
DEP declared East Putman County Road
WWTP as
“significantly-out-of-compliance” in
March 2005. A year later, the facility
was again designated as
“significantly-out-of-compliance”. The
Palatka WWTF was listed as
“out-of-compliance” in July of 2005. A
return inspection almost a year later,
in June 2006, resulted in the plant
being declared
“significantly-out-of-compliance”.
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