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New Approach To Jacksonville Septic Tanks Could Phase Out More Neighborhoods Sooner

David Bauerlein
/
The Florida Times-Union
Construction of conventional gravity sewer systems requires digging deep trenches for the pipes as this JEA project in the Biltmore neighborhood shows. A JEA report says it would cost less to use vacuum sewer technology to phase out septic tanks.

Jacksonville has always known that removing septic tanks from neighborhoods would be a massive undertaking in time and money, making it the public works equivalent of doing root canal surgery in dozens of communities.

A long-awaited report from JEA shows how Jacksonville could cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the high cost of phasing out septic tanks in 32 of those neighborhoods by using a different approach for bringing sewer service to homes.

JEA has been using estimates it would cost about $1 billion to take care of those neighborhoods, but that expense would drop to $743 million by using a vacuum sewer system technology, the report shows.

Read the rest of this story from WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.