In recent years the beaches of Florida haven’t been as they once were. Increasingly the beaches have been forced to close periodically as a result of unsafe levels of bacteria in the water. Red tides, huge patches of potentially toxic algae, have appeared threatening both swimmers and marine life.
The main culprit for the deterioration of Florida’s beaches and coastline is the discharge of partially treated sewage that is released through six major pipelines that reach out as far 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.
Three of Florida’s most densely populated counties are connected to the pipelines which dump close to 300 million gallons of nearly raw urban waste water into the sea daily.
The State has long argued the risk to humans is minimal as the sewage dissipates into the Gulfstream current which carries it north and out into the Atlantic.
Environmentalists and scientists disagree, saying that the sewage can be harmful to humans, particularly children and the elderly, or anyone with weakened immune systems. The sewage also has detrimental effects on the coastal ecosystems as it contains high levels of nitrogen, ammonia and other serious contaminants which feed the development of algae blooms.
The Florida State House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill from the Senate which will eventually shut down the pipelines.
The closure of the pipelines won’t happen overnight. State officials expect that it could take up to 15 years and cost up to 3 billion dollars to close the system.
The waste treatment plants that feed the pipelines were constructed in the 1940s and haven’t been kept up with the times or the growing population in Florida over the last 75 years.
Florida is not the only culprit. California also discharges large amounts of sewage through out fall pipes directly into the Pacific Ocean. Some officials have been accused of treating the seas as a giant toilet.
Environmental advocates have been urging state regulators to devise policies to curb the waste water practices and implement programs to upgrade or replace aging sewage processing plants.
Some of the plants are so old and poorly maintained that their septic storage tanks are leaking sewage water into the groundwater. Environmentalists want these facilities repaired or closed.
There is a crying need for greater investment in municipal waste-water systems, said Ed Hopkins, Director of the Sierra Club’s environmental quality program.
For years we have not been keeping up with the cost of maintaining these systems and that is something as a society we need to do a better job of. We are literally hundreds of billions of dollars behind in taking care of our waste water systems.
