Home > For Our Environment > The River Accord > Historical Background

On Thursday, July 27, 2006, Mayor John Peyton announced the River Accord, the largest initiative ever undertaken on behalf of the St. Johns River. JEA is a proud partner in the River Accord.

However, JEA’s work to improve the river began in 1997 when the utility first took responsibility for the City’s water and sewer services. From that time to the signing of the River Accord, JEA invested more than $2 billion in improvements to these systems.

• $400 million to replace failing sewer pipes and upgrade sewer pump stations.
  The result: Street cave-ins were reduced by 80 percent annually. Reportable sanitary sewer overflows were reduced by 80 percent annually, as well.
  
  
• $220 million to upgrade regional sewer treatment plants.
  The result: Annual permit violations at JEA treatment plants decreased by 90 percent. JEA’s largest wastewater treatment plant, Buckman, received the EPA’s 2003 national Operations and Maintenance Excellence.
  
  
• Voluntary removal of increasing amounts of nitrogen from JEA’s processed waste water.
  The result: Even though Northeast Florida’s growth increased the sewage flow into our five regional wastewater plants by nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2006, JEA’s total nitrogen discharge to the river decreased by 39 percent over the same time period.
  
  
• Incineration of solid waste removed as part of the sewage treatment process was eliminated.
  The result: JEA built a state-of-the-art reprocessing facility to turn collected solid waste into a commercial grade Biosolid Fertilizer. Eighty percent of this fertilizer is used commercially in agricultural applications. The remainder is sold as a slow release organic fertilizer under the name Green Edge.
  
  
• The wastewater disinfection process at JEA treatment facilities was changed to ultraviolet disinfection.
  The result: JEA eliminated the need to add hazardous chlorine to kill bacteria in the effluent before going to the river.
  
  
• Shortly after taking responsibility for the City’s water and wastewater systems, JEA began producing reclaimed water.
  The result: Prior to 1997, no reclaimed water was being produced. At the time the River Accord was signed, JEA was able to make 10 percent of treated wastewater was available for reuse in irrigation. This served two positive purposes- reduced nitrogen discharge to the river by using the water for irrigation rather than being returned to the river and reduced the use of fresh water from the Floridan aquifer for irrigation.