Northside Generating Station has 48 groundwater monitoring wells, 24 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between January 04, 2010 and November 19, 2015. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate, manganese, molybdenum, arsenic, nitrate, beryllium, strontium, cobalt, selenium, lead, antimony, nickel, nitrite, radium and thallium.
Site descriptionThe Jacksonville Electric Authority's Northside Generating Station is located in Jacksonville, Florida on the north bank of a channel of the St. John's River. Two of the plant's electric generating units burn coal and petroleum coke, and a third unit burns residual fuel oil and natural gas. The plant operates a 34-acre by-product storage area (BSA) to store fly and bed ash. The BSA was constructed in 2002, and by 2013, it was considered between 67% and 71% full. In 2013, the site' s two coal and petroleum coke-powered units generated 530 tons of dry bed and fly ash per day, but the majority of this waste was transported off-site for "beneficial reuse" or to other landfills. The ash is used to create a construction product called EZBase which has been linked to water contamination in Clay County.
Three groundwater zones - shallow, intermediate, and deep - have been identified beneath the site. Groundwater in these zones tends to flow toward the south-southwest, toward an area used to process ash into EZBase. Northside's 2011-2013 Periodic Groundwater Monitoring Report for the BSA points to pre-operational background conditions, former dredge spoil area operations, and storm water runoff to explain on-site groundwater contamination. However, the groundwater contamination at the site is still being studied.
For more information regarding Northside Generating Station, visit SoutheastCoalAsh.org.