Remediation and Other Environmental Services at the Northside Generating Station
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Project Objective

JEA’s Northside Generating Station has supplied electrical power to the City of Jacksonville since the 1960s and currently operates three boilers and four combustion turbine generators. Prior Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) investigations detected impacts to groundwater, surface water, soil, and sediments at multiple solid waste disposal areas. Contaminants of concern included arsenic, nickel, and vanadium. JEA selected Geosyntec to provide corrective measures and related environmental services in response to a RCRA Consent Order.

Geosyntec’s Scope of Services

Following assessment and monitoring activities conducted by others, Geosyntec performed supplemental environmental assessment at the metal-impacted areas and prepared a RCRA Corrective Measure Design (CMD). Phase 1 of the CMD included a soil cap to mitigate potential direct exposure to and leaching from soils and a hydraulic control system to mitigate offsite migration of groundwater contaminants. Geosyntec also completed the RCRA Corrective Measure Implementation (CMI) for Phase 1 of the design, which included technical specifications for construction of the remediation system, permitting, construction management, operation and maintenance (O&M), and monitoring of groundwater and surface water. Phase 2 of the CMD is currently in progress and includes excavation of impacted sediments and conversion of an open drainage ditch to a concrete-piped channel to minimize groundwater-surface water interaction.

Notable Accomplishments

Through negotiations with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Geosyntec obtained approval to implement a phased approach to system design and implementation. Geosyntec determined that optimal upgrades to the stormwater management system required performance data from operation of the hydraulic control system. FDEP approved Geosyntec’s proposal to design and construct the Phase 1 features then complete design and construction of the stormwater system in Phase 2, after two years of monitoring. This approach decreased potential delays to Phase 1 implementation and costly potential Phase 2 design adjustments.

Geosyntec’s hydraulic control system included an innovative and automated recovery approach that utilized preset flow or level control settings to pump a predetermined volume of groundwater to maintain groundwater elevations with minimal oversight and manual adjustments. Such measures enhanced system efficiency to achieve necessary performance with cost-saving reductions in required equipment, construction, and lifecycle O&M.

During the design process, Geosyntec evaluated multiple options for treatment and reuse of water extracted by the remediation system. These evaluations led to a final design that reduced the client’s waste disposal costs and improved system sustainability.

Geosyntec’s proposed solution also involved wetland property, which required special considerations during design and construction as well as environmental permitting with federal and state agencies.