Keep our Drinking Water Safe

December 10, 2024 – The City of Milton City Council voted to change plans that would have had millions of gallons of wastewater containing dangerous “forever chemicals” onto environmentally sensitive land known as the East Milton Wellfield Protection Area (WPA). The new plan will move the location of a new wastewater treatment plant away from the WPA.

It is essential that the WPA is preserved because it filters water that eventually reaches the underground aquafer that supplies drinking water to the communities served by the Fairpoint Regional Utility System. In the fall of 2024, hundreds of Santa Rosa County residents signed a petition urging the city to protect the WPA.

Of all the qualities that sustain and nurture us wherever we live, clean, safe drinking water is perhaps the most essential. Without it, nothing is possible. We have all seen what happens to communities where the quality of their drinking water has been compromised.

For the people of South Santa Rosa County, safe and secure drinking water is provided by the Fairpoint Regional Utility System (FRUS). It draws the water that sustains our families, our communities, our businesses, our way of life from an underground aquifer that today is safe and wholesome. However, this does not mean the aquifer is unthreatened.

This aquifer is fed in part by surface water that slowly filters through the earth above it. This natural filter is the East Milton Wellfield, and the Santa Rosa County Commission has designated it as a specially protected area. 

However, in 2023, the Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners transferred 100 acres of land to the City of Milton for the city to use as a disposal site for a new wastewater treatment facility. About one-third of the 100 acres that have been given to the city is within the Wellfield Protection Zone. 

We know that this wastewater contains PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as “Forever Chemicals,” which has been linked to deadly cancers and other serious health issues. “Forever chemicals” get their name because unlike most waste, they never decompose into their base elements. They are dangerous and they persist indefinitely. There is not currently a limit for PFAS in wastewater but there is now a limit in drinking water, and the City of Milton’s wastewater effluent results indicate PFAS 11 to 35 times above limits set by the EPA for drinking water standards. The City of Milton treats wastewater from industrial parks as well as NAS Whiting Field which are known sources of PFAS. In addition, the new plant will help serve an anticipated 32 percent increase in population expected over the next 10 years. It is expected that the new plant will discharge up to 8 million gallons of treated wastewater a day. Current plans will not adequately remove PFAS from this wastewater. However, in December of 2024, the City of Milton agreed to relocate its new wastewater treatment facility so that wastewater will not be sprayed in the WPA. 

The City of Milton’s decision was a positive step. However, we need to continue to ensure that county and municipal governments in Santa Rosa County work together to ensure that PFAS “Forever Chemicals” do not enter our safe drinking water supply.

You can sign up to receive future updates from us here:

Save Our Drinking Water is a public education project of the citizens and local water utilities that make up the Fairpoint Regional Utility System.