By Associated Press
02/08/08

Florida's beaches are world renowned and highly acclaimed, yet every single day, communities in South Florida dump more than 300 million gallons of lightly treated sewage into the Atlantic Ocean.

One state lawmaker says it's time to stop dumping polluted water into the ocean.

Senator Burt Saunders says Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties all use submerged pipes to dump the wastewater several miles away from beaches.

The sewage is treated to the lowest permissible standard before it's dumped. Saunders says it's still polluted water.

So now Saunders is pushing legislation, with support from the state Department of Environmental Protection, to shut down those sewage pipes. He wants to recycle the wastewater for more beneficial purposes, such as irrigation or for industrial plants.

Building the infrastructure for those ideas could cost billions and take years to complete. So in the interim, Saunders says the proposed legislation would force counties to clean the water more thoroughly before dumping it.

Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Sarah Williams says the state constantly monitors water levels along beaches and issues advisories when bacteria levels are high.

She says the source of that bacteria is not known for certain, but shutting down the sewage pipes would ensure the bacteria is not coming from ocean dumping.

Williams says there have been lots of studies on whether the dumping of lightly treated sewage poses a health hazard, but none has proven negative impacts.

While it would be expensive to recycle the wastewater, Williams says it would be worth it in the long run because it would eliminate the ocean dumping and help ease water restrictions due to the drought.

 

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