The record is plain: St. Johns County’s State Road 207 Water Reclamation Facility officially came online on May 11, 2026. It cost $191.8 million, the largest capital improvement project in county history.
County documents say the facility sits west of Interstate 95 at 3055 SR 207 in Elkton. It treats wastewater and turns out reclaimed water meant for irrigation and other uses that do not need drinking-quality supply. The county says this helps conserve the Floridan Aquifer, Northeast Florida’s primary source of drinking water.
Scope and capacity
The total covers the plant, multiple pump stations and approximately 15 miles of pipeline for wastewater and reclaimed water, from 16 to 30 inches in diameter. That pipe links the plant, the Watson Road Master Wastewater Pump Station and the Tillman Ridge Reclaimed Water Booster Pump Station to the county’s utility system.
Initial treatment capacity is 3.25 million gallons per day. The design allows expansion to 6.5 million gallons per day. Jacobs, the engineering and construction management firm, built it through a progressive design-build contract.
Funding came from the utility department’s enterprise fund. That means utility revenues, not property taxes, paid the bill.
What the county expects
Over 20 years, the county projects the project will stop more than one million pounds of nutrient pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus among them, from reaching the Matanzas River.
“This facility represents a transformative investment in St. Johns County’s future,” said Alan Flood, senior engineer for the county’s utility department. “By expanding reclaimed water capacity and reducing nutrient discharges, we are protecting our natural resources while ensuring our utility infrastructure can meet the needs of future generations.”
The Jacksonville Business Journal, as relayed by Hoodline, reported that contractors have been connecting the new mains to the existing reclaimed network so neighborhoods and parks can irrigate without drawing on the aquifer.
The state requirement
Florida law sets the timeline. The Florida Senate required utilities that send treated effluent to surface waters to submit plans ending non-beneficial discharges and to complete them by January 1, 2032. County officials say the facility supports compliance with State Senate Bill 64, which encourages beneficial reuse of treated wastewater.
The plant is also the largest line in a program of more than $820 million in projects planned or finished across 2025 and 2026. According to News4Jax, it is expected to ease the load on the Anastasia Island wastewater plant.
The county has scheduled an official ribbon-cutting for late summer.
Sources
- St. Johns County’s $192 Million SR 207 Water Beast Roars to Life
- State Road 207 Water Reclamation Facility – St. Johns County
