By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
02/17/08

Every day, six plants in Miami-Dade, Broward and south Palm Beach counties pump about 300 million gallons of sewage into the Atlantic Ocean. The brew is screened of its foulest components but remains nutrient-rich, not even clean enough to sprinkle on a lawn.

State regulators, with support from Gov. Charlie Crist and a key state Senate panel, are stepping up a push to phase out a practice that environmentalists, divers and some scientists believe has tainted reefs, marine life and beaches.

Draft legislation, to be reviewed in a Senate environmental committee hearing in Tallahassee on Tuesday, would give the only three Florida counties that dump sewage into the ocean a decade to upgrade wastewater plants from minimal to advanced treatment. If approved, it would end daily discharges, aside from limited backup use, by 2025.

T.J. Marshall, the Miami Beach-based coordinator for the Florida Coastal and Ocean Coalition, praised the proposal and said environmentalists would support a 10-year wait for cleaner outfall flows if it can end decades of damage.

''In my lifetime, we've pumped enough sewage offshore to fill Lake Okeechobee twice,'' he said. ``It's probably the biggest environmental disaster in Florida, but because nobody sees it, nothing's been done.''

SHOT AT PASSING

Sen. Burt Saunders, a Naples Republican who chairs the committee, believes the proposal has a solid shot at passing -- despite the counties' continuing concerns about inconclusive studies and a $3 billion price tag to overhaul six plants.

''There is some question as to the amount of environmental degradation caused by this. There is no question there is some,'' Saunders said. ``Regardless of the environmental impact, it seems to me that if you have 300 million gallons a day, when we get into these kinds of droughts that we have now, that resource would be valuable.''

Miami-Dade, Broward and Hollywood -- which operates one of the two Broward regional plants -- have balked at initial proposals from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, opposing a shutdown of pipelines as too costly and demanding more data to support its impact on marine life.

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