bidding, the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD)
increased funding. This allowed the City to expand the planned
pumping station and add 5 miles of distribution lines to provide
irrigation water to several City ball fields and the City cemetery,
Palatka High School recreational fields, and St. Johns State
Community College grounds. Ayres Associates redesigned the
pumping station and distribution lines in three weeks.
“This is one of the bigger water conservation trends that has really
taken off over the last 10 years,” said City Manager Woody Boynton.
“We entered the program with the goal of meeting our mandated
reduction of wastewater to the river. Through the cooperative efforts
of the SJRWMD, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,
and City leadership, we have increased our goal to being the first city
to ultimately remove all of its wastewater from the St. Johns River.”
Palatka is also completing improvements at its wastewater
treatment plant. “When that’s done, it will essentially be a zero
discharge facility,” said Ayres Associates design engineer Daryl Myers.
“Palatka will have the capability of using its reuse system to get rid of
all the wastewater they get – dumping zero into the St. Johns River.”
In the natural water cycle, water moves from oceans and lakes
to the air to the ground, over and over again. Communities have
their own water cycle – finding and storing water, making sure it’s
safe to drink, distributing it to residents, and then making sure the
water is clean before it returns to the environment. Round and round
the water goes, and public works employees and engineers throughout
the nation are doing their part to keep it safe and available for future
generations.
HDPE piping (top photo), used for a horizontal directional drill under State
Road 19, is part of the network of pipes that takes highly disinfected
reclaimed wastewater from the holding pond at the Palatka Golf Club (center
photo) to be used as irrigation water throughout the City, including at the
Palatka Municipal Airport (bottom photo).