Is city water safe? ABSOLUTELY!

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
February 18, 2016 4:56 p.m.

Fernandina Beach’s water supply is abundant, healthy and safe—not just today but for well into the future. This was the conclusion I reached after spending some time interviewing John Mandrick, the city’s Utilities Department Director. Mandrick, who came to the city in 1998, graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in mathematics. In his current capacity he has amassed many more licenses and professional certifications from the state of Florida to help him manage a department charged with stewardship over one of the most important ingredients of our lives: water.

In light of community concerns over possible saltwater intrusion into the aquifer and general uneasiness over the water problems in Flint, Michigan, I thought this might be a good time to interview Mandrick for some straight talk about our city water.

The Floridan Aquifer

Mandrick has been directly involved in monitoring the aquifer since 1998, when the city started building a water plant. In 2001 he obtained for the city a 20-year consumptive use water permit. Mandrick also serves on Rayonier’s Community Advisory Council. He interfaces with both Rayonier and WestRock when they deal with environmental permitting issues. The city works with the same regulators on state and federal levels. Mandrick said that environmental permitting does not go through cities, because generally cities do not have the expertise to evaluate such highly technical matters. The state of Florida decided to regulate water management through five districts. The St. Johns Water Management District (SJWMD) is the permitting arm of the state for our city and county.

While St. Johns County has had water issues, Mandrick explained that we do not share those issues. The branch of the Floridan Aquifer that supplies our water comes from the west and out of the Okefenokee Swamp Basin. St. Johns’ water is pulled from the aquifer at a different point—after it passes through Duval County. Withdrawal rates from both JEA and Gainesville have impacted the amount of water available for St. Johns. “They have different issues that we don’t have,” Mandrick said. “Our water is in great shape as shown by 15 years of sampling twice per year. Our chloride values are trending down and have been since 1999.”

According to recent carbon dating, our water is incredibly old, more than 9,500 years old to be exact. Because it is so old, there is no chance of pesticides, benzenes, herbicides or other manmade toxins being tapped to supply drinking water. “They are not in our water and never will be,” he said. “There is a big difference between treating shallow well water and aquifer water. Surface water can change in minutes, but it takes thousands of years to change aquifer water.

Impact of irrigation on the aquifer

In response to a question, Mandrick explained that drawing water from the aquifer is completely different from drawing water from superficial underground sources (300-400 feet deep) to allow private wells for irrigation. SJWMD highly regulates tapping into the aquifer in order to avoid damaging the water contained therein. “The district permits wells with pipes 4 inches or larger. They don’t concern themselves with smaller wells,” Mandrick said.

The smell of water

Mandrick said that his training as an electrical engineer has helped him understand and implement the complex monitoring systems used to keep the water as chemical free as possible. The systems can be as complex as those used in aviation or your car’s cruise control. By properly varying the levels of chlorine, the city can keep our water from either smelling like a swimming pool or like rotten eggs.

Mandrick explained changes that were implemented beginning in 1998 with respect to water treatment. He said that previously a set amount of chlorine was added to the water at certain times of the day. Today, the amount of chlorine is more closely monitored thanks to technological advancements, meaning the amount and timing of its use is controlled electronically to adjust to swings in water usage. When water is pulled out of the ground it is first aerated. That process returns oxygen to the water, which then sits 4-5 hours before it is pumped. The longer the water sits following aeration, the less chlorine is needed to treat the water.

Re-use or recycled water

We segued into a discussion of the benefits and costs of “re-use water.” Water recycling is reusing treated wastewater for beneficial purposes such as agricultural and landscape irrigation, industrial processes, toilet flushing, and replenishing a ground water basin (referred to as ground water recharge). It has been suggested that the current practice of discharging effluent into the Amelia River could be harmful to the river when instead that same water could be used to nourish our golf courses.

Mandrick said that in looking at water conservation, it is important to look at the total picture of energy use and energy savings. Water recycling is expensive because of the treatment costs and the amount of energy used to produce it. He said that it is a good option for those communities that face the challenge of not having enough water to maintain quality of life, but that such a system is not necessary here and would be more expensive than local residents would be willing to pay.

Mandrick allowed that while pipes were in place at the city and Amelia River golf courses to allow reuse water, the activity involved more than just pipes. The reclamation of the water costs more than to pump water out of the ground.

“First and foremost,” Mandrick said, “the Amelia River is not impaired. When I use that term, it’s a definition term provided by Florida DEP and the EPA. That river is not listed as an impaired waterway. The wastewater that we currently pour into that river is not only not harming the river, it is helping it. We monitor that released water as well and points upstream and downstream of the discharge point. Our discharge is cleaner than the river. Manatees come to drink that fresh water in the summertime that we are putting back into the river. Manatees are a protected species, and without our discharge, they would not be able to find a freshwater source in the Amelia River, which is a brackish river. If we were to stop discharging that water into the river, we could be jeopardizing the overall health of the river. It’s called ‘solution by dilution.’ And because it flows by gravity from our plant to the river, we don’t need to spend any money on pumping it.

“If you tried to use that effluent on the golf course you would need to add additional filtration to meet EPA standards. You would need to use more energy to pressurize, filter and pump the reuse water 24 hours per day. In addition to maintenance requirements there are additional standards for disinfection that need to be met. The reuse water needs to be brought up higher than drinking water standards,” Mandrick said. “That is very expensive. Even if you were given the use of the plant for free, the operating costs of such a system would be prohibitive.”

Conserving water while conserving energy

Mandrick said, “The first thing you need to consider when talking about water conservation is that water is very heavy—8.34 pounds per gallon. And to move water takes a lot of energy. Rather than looking at it from the angle of conserving water, which is important, I think a better way to look at it is to try to leave as small a carbon footprint as you possibly can, which involves your energy usage. When you turn on that faucet and you pour yourself a glass of water, you may not be thinking of all the energy it takes to deliver that water into your glass. There is a huge amount of energy to move that water, provide the chemicals at the plant and treat that water. There’s a lot of energy poured into that glass. By looking at conserving your water you really need to look at the standpoint of using as little as possible so you are not wasting energy.

“How can we use as little energy as possible and still retain our quality of life? That’s a bigger picture than just looking at water. It enables you not to get tunnel vision on one commodity. Because if you want to save just one commodity, you might just be doing environmental harm by wasting tons of energy. You need to take a step back and look at a bigger picture, that energy component. That’s really what people need to focus on.”

Fernandina Beach’s utilities and staff 

The city of Fernandina Beach operates three water plants. The system has been designed in such a way that even if two plants went off line, local residents would not notice any interruption in their flow of water. Additionally, the “Pirates water tower” at Atlantic Avenue and 11^th Street stores a half million gallons of water to keep pressurized water flowing for 6-7 hours, in the event of an emergency. Although the city has one sewer plant, there are two production lines, in effect creating a second plant, which is currently not used—but could be activated in an emergency.

The complexity of modern water management has changed the nature of the work. New employees are “Master Craft Employees,” meaning that they can work in a variety of disciplines, including plumbing, electrical and heavy equipment. “They get involved in all those aspects,” Mandrick said, “and we provide training and education. There is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes when people draw that glass of water or flush that toilet. We want to make sure that the wastewater does not create a health hazard or pollute our beaches.”

“We in our department try to use as little energy as possible to deliver water and treat wastewater for our community. Our recent purchase of solar panels has helped in that regard. Our three water plants each have monthly electric bills of $5,000 or so. We are doing everything we can to reduce that cost. Any way we can lower that cost will help the ratepayer. If we pay less we won’t have to increase our fees. If you restrict lawn watering, that helps our fuel costs, too.”

City vs. unincorporated county areas of the island

How does the city’s water system compare to that in the unincorporated part of the island? Since 2003, the city has been actively putting money into upgrading water and sewer to extend the life of the system. The system that the county purchased at the south end of the island (unincorporated) was all put in about the same time for Amelia Island Plantation.

Built in 1970’s, the south end utilities are at end of life, according to Mandrick. Nassau County has a capital improvement plan to put money back into infrastructure, but the amount is too little to address all the needs. Mandrick said, “When your system is going on 50 years old, and it hasn’t been upgraded incrementally, you need to make major expenditures over a short period of time. The county is either going to be very fortunate to get by with small investments or …” There is only have one water and one sewer plant to cover the southern quarter of the island, including the Ritz and the Plantation.

Mandrick added, “The city has a very robust, redundant water system. We have a water main right across the street from the county’s. They could do an interconnect, but it appears that for political reasons they are choosing not do so.”

Closing comment

I asked John what message he would like to leave for Fernandina Observer readers. He said, “I want to reassure people that we take lots of steps to make sure water is safe. I drink our water. My family drinks our water. I live on the island. The city’s water systems meet or exceed all expectations from all federal and state regulatory authorities. We are really blessed here in this community with a very stable water source.”

Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.