Posted on Sun, Nov. 04, 2007
Counties flush dirty water into the ocean
By CARL HIAASEN
One of South Florida's dirtiest secrets is the daily dumping of a
half-billion gallons of sewage into the Atlantic Ocean.

The polluters are the governments of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
counties, which use submerged pipes to pump the ''minimally treated''
wastewater two to three miles off our beaches.

It's a massive environmental crime that hasn't received much public
attention, probably because it takes place underwater and out of sight.

But, at long last, the state Department of Environmental Protection is
seeking to shut down the pipelines and halt the flow of urban sewage
into the ocean. The DEP says the counties should recycle the wastewater
instead of flushing it on the reefs (or what's left of them).

The official reaction of county leaders has been remarkably devoid of
shame or remorse. They strongly oppose the DEP initiative, saying
there's no conclusive evidence that a daily deluge of 500,000 gallons of
crappy water seriously harms marine life.

In a pitch to Gov. Charlie Crist, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez
soberly asserted that ``it is not in the public interest to spend a
significant amount of money to eliminate discharges when we do not have
the answer to what is really causing the impact to reefs.''

If Alvarez truly believes that a steady torrent of sewage causes no
damage to coral, he's staggeringly ignorant.

And he's not alone. Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti and Broward Mayor
Josephus Eggelletion Jr., too, have sent letters asking the DEP to
produce proof that effluent is harmful to the sea.

Among reputable marine scientists there is little debate. Sewage
contains higher levels of nitrogen, ammonia and other contaminants that
are widely believed to promote algae blooms and disease in coral
communities.

As coral formations die off, fish, lobsters and sea turtles lose
critical habitat.

Your average second-grader has no difficulty understanding that
polluting the ocean has unhealthy consequences, but Alvarez, Giulianti
and Eggelletion are slow learners.

Either that, or they're more worried about their own political hides.

Water treatment is costly, and the type of recycling system that state
regulators are recommending for the three overcrowded counties might
require $2.7 billion in new infrastructure, according to one study.

That's a lot of money, yet it would translate to a relatively modest
hike in monthly water bills, starting at about $20 per household. Many
families wouldn't mind paying that much to reuse wastewater, if they
realized the unsavory alternative and what it means for the future.

Using the Atlantic as a toilet is immoral, but it's also idiotic, when
you consider the growing water crisis in South Florida. The precious
half-billion gallons that are sent out to sea every day could be
recycled instead for irrigation, industry and even drinking, if
sufficiently cleaned.

Each with two active pipelines into the ocean, Broward, Palm Beach and
Miami-Dade currently waste more water than any other counties. Broward
flushes 191 millions per day, Palm Beach loses 108 million and
Miami-Dade dumps 208 million.

It's obscene, and ultimately self-destructive.

The pipeline conflict between the counties and the state is an important
test of Crist's declared commitment to a responsible environmental
policy. The DEP, which became a pushover during Jeb Bush's tenure, has
always had the authority to crack down on polluters; what's been missing
is leadership and resolve.

Even in moving to plug the offshore pipes, the agency meekly stopped
short of acknowledging a connection between sewage exposure and reef
destruction. The DEP said only that ''the weight of evidence . . . calls
into question the environmental acceptability'' of ocean dumping.

No kidding.

Most Floridians are fiercely protective of their ocean, bays, gulfs and
beaches, and man-made threats to those treasures aren't taken lightly.
The opposition to offshore oil drilling, for example, remains intense
from the Panhandle to the Keys.

Yet, with the exception of divers, fishermen and marine biologists,
residents of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are mostly
unaware of how much sewage is being spewed right off the coastline, and
who's doing it.

For obvious reasons, the municipal governments don't eagerly publicize
their role in this foul enterprise.

How ludicrous for officials to contend that the effects are unknown.
There's nothing harmless about polluting the Atlantic; it just happens
to be the cheapest, easiest way to get rid of huge volumes of impure water.

Think about it.

If the stuff really weren't so bad, they wouldn't have sunk three miles
of pipe to pump it away from the beach.