Assessment nearly complete for Doughboy Dump, staff says

Speaker 1, a staff member, told attendees that the environmental assessment of Doughboy Dump and several nearby ash disposal sites in Jacksonville is nearly complete and that the city will put the work out for bid as a design-build project after completing a hydraulic evaluation.

The assessment aims to determine whether contamination in buried ash is migrating from groundwater into surface water and the St. Johns River system. "If we don't have any [groundwater-to-surface-water connection], then all I have to do is put a clay cap here," Speaker 1 said. "If I do have a true groundwater, the surface water connection with respect to impacts, then I'm probably gonna have to put an actual mechanical wall there to prevent migration from the waste into the river system." Speaker 1 also said the procurement will follow once the hydraulic evaluation is complete: "we're gonna put it out for bid on what's called the design build."

Why the work matters: officials and residents discussed the potential for buried municipal incinerator ash and other dumped materials to leach into groundwater and downstream wetlands. Speaker 1 said some sites were evaluated for Superfund status but were instead handled under a different state program, and that private parcels where dumping occurred generally do not create city liability. "Those kind of sites were evaluated, but they're not consent free with the EPA. They already had their own consent to be free with the EP," Speaker 1 said.

Details from the meeting: Speaker 1 described several specific locations and neighborhood landmarks mentioned during the discussion, including Doughboy Dump, properties along Nash Street, Harvest Farms, the JHA Building and the parcel behind Casa Lana. The staff member described an area where material was placed and later became a wetland: "This area here has actually turned into a high quality wetland because we were actually gonna do some remediation on it. But what we're trying to do right now is we've assessed all this area up here."

Speaker 1 said the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is asking the city to demonstrate whether the waste is affecting groundwater and surface water so regulators can determine the appropriate remedy. The staff member noted that if a groundwater-to-surface-water connection is found, a containment wall may be required; otherwise a clay cap could be sufficient. The speaker also referenced longer-term obligations tied to remediation: after construction, "we're required for 30 years to upkeep the cap," Speaker 1 said when describing post-construction operations and maintenance responsibilities.

Unresolved or not specified: acreage figures were discussed tentatively; Speaker 1 said they thought the site might be "40 some odd acres, 44, 45 acres" but declined to confirm the exact number during the meeting. Funding sources and a formal schedule for the design-build bid were not specified. No formal vote or ordinance was recorded on the transcript.

Follow-up and next steps: Speaker 1 said the city will complete the hydraulic evaluation, then proceed to design-build procurement. The meeting also included a reference to distributing the project master plan to attendees via Celestine and a note that an update on the US 1 CRA would be scheduled at a future meeting.

The discussion took place during a community update portion of the meeting; residents asked clarifying questions and staff described planned outreach and further inspections.