Tallahassee's Wastewater and Wakulla Springs

Tallahassee's sewage is pumped from the collection system to the city's TPS Water Reclamation Facility, which can treat 26.5 million gallons a day, according to the city's wastewater services page.

TPS stands for Thomas P. Smith, and the City of Tallahassee says the plant meets and exceeds all local, state and federal permit standards.

After treatment the water goes to land. The U.S. Geological Survey report SIR 2010-5099, prepared in cooperation with the City of Tallahassee, says the city began a pilot study in 1966 at the Southwest Farm sprayfield to test disposing of treated wastewater with center pivot irrigation, and opened a new, larger Southeast Farm sprayfield in November 1980. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's 2025 Wakulla basin plan describes the Southeast Spray Field as a place where crops are grown. The city has also begun putting the site to other uses: its 2025 report to the Public Service Commission says installation of a 50 kW floating solar system began in 2025 over a treated wastewater holding pond at the Southeast Farm facility.

Nitrate from the Tallahassee sprayfields can travel through the Upper Floridan aquifer to Wakulla Springs, and the USGS model found the Southeast Farm was the largest simulated source of the spring's nitrate load in 1987.

The USGS abstract notes that a 2002 study indicated nitrate-N from the farm operations may be moving through the aquifer to the spring. Its model, run from January 1, 1966, through December 31, 2018, in the Wakulla Springs springshed of Leon and Wakulla counties, produced these loads, beginning with a relatively modest load of 69,000 kilograms a year in 1967.

The USGS attributes the projected drop from 111,000 to 42,000 kilograms a year to the planned reduction in the nitrate-N concentration of the Tallahassee wastewater used for irrigation. In the 2018 projection, onsite sewage disposal systems, meaning septic tanks, supplied 32,000 kilograms, or 21 percent, close behind the farm.

Wakulla Spring is one of 31 first magnitude springs in Florida, with an average flow of approximately 623 cubic feet per second, roughly 400 million gallons a day, according to the Northwest Florida Water Management District.

The spring lies within Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park south of Tallahassee. The district says its vent, beneath a limestone ledge on the south side of the spring pool, is approximately 180 feet below land surface and opens into caverns extensively mapped by Woodville Karst Plain Project divers. The Wakulla River, Apalachee Bay and most of the St. Marks River below the river rise at Natural Bridge are designated Outstanding Florida Waters. The district also notes that the invasive plant hydrilla took hold in the spring in the late 1990s, and that open water diving is allowed at Cherokee Sink in the park.

The state says it did: the DEP's June 2025 Upper Wakulla River and Wakulla Spring BMAP reports substantial water quality improvement since the 2012 TMDL, after Tallahassee's main wastewater plant was upgraded to significantly reduce nitrate.

The plan calls T.P. Smith the largest source of nitrate loading to the Upper Wakulla River and Wakulla Springs during the TMDL assessment period. Since then, it says, the City of Tallahassee upgraded the plant, removed biosolids application in the basin and eliminated fertilizer application on the Southeast Spray Field. The TMDL, adopted in 2012, sets a monthly average nitrate-nitrite target of 0.35 mg/L, and the 2025 plan calculates that a further 14% reduction is still needed at the spring vent.

Under section 373.811, Florida Statutes, the plan prohibits new septic systems on lots of one acre or less inside the BMAP where central sewer is available; where it is not, owners must install a DEP-approved enhanced nutrient-reducing system achieving at least 65% nitrogen reduction. New domestic wastewater facilities of 100,000 gallons per day or more must meet an advanced waste treatment standard of no more than 3 mg/L total nitrogen. The BMAP area covers parts of Wakulla, Leon and Gadsden counties, so those rules reach much of southern Leon County, where septic systems supply 43% of the estimated load in the DEP analysis.

Leon County is replacing septic tanks with central sewer in its Primary Springs Protection Zone, adopted into the Land Development Code in 2007, according to the county's springs protection page.

The zone covers a significant portion of southern Leon County where soils are more permeable and pollutants near the land surface are more likely to reach the Floridan aquifer. The county says it began construction in May 2018 on the first of five septic-to-sewer projects in southside Leon County, and that with DEP it has begun four projects totaling $18 million in Woodside Heights, Annawood, Belair, Woodville Rural and Northeast Lake Munson neighborhoods.

The county's septic to sewer page reports $9 million in DEP grants to date and 610 septic tank upgrades or eliminations, exceeding its goal of 500. Some project dates on these county pages are old and have not been updated: the page still says Woodville Phase 1A construction will occur June 2023, and the springs page lists Belair with an estimated completion of November 2020. Readers should treat those as the county's posted schedule, not current status.

Tallahassee residential sewer customers pay a $26.09 monthly customer charge plus $.83458 per 100 gallons, as posted on the city's wastewater page on October 18, 2026.

Because sewer use cannot be metered, the Tallahassee charge follows metered water use up to a cap: each April the city sets each household's maximum residential sewer charge from the highest water use on its December, January, February and March bills, and that cap applies for the next 12 months. Customers outside the City of Tallahassee pay a 50% surcharge. Commercial accounts pay sewer charges on all water use, and separate metering is required to avoid sewer charges on irrigation or cooling tower use.

Businesses face extra rules. The city's Pretreatment Program enforces the Sewer Use Ordinance in Chapter 21, Article IX, Division 3 of the Tallahassee Code of General Ordinances, routinely inspects industrial users, and works from 4505-A Springhill Road (850-891-4968). The same page links the FROG program on fats, rags, oils and grease and a sign-up for notifications of sewer overflows in Leon County.

Last verified: October 18, 2026. Re-read for this check: the City of Tallahassee wastewater page, the USGS SIR 2010-5099 abstract, the DEP June 2025 Wakulla BMAP, the NWFWMD Wakulla Springs page, both Leon County springs and septic pages, and the City's 2025 PSC conservation report.