Florida governor to get bill phasing out discharge of sewage in...

Some math: 300 million gallons spread over 6 pipes perhaps ranging over 60 miles from PBC to M-D. Thats 50 million gallons per pipe per year, or about 130,000 gallons per day and 5000 gallons per hour. Okay so it takes four hours to empty the equivalent of your swimming pool into the ocean.

Congrats you have just been taxed $250/yr in perpetuity for something that will have no tangible benefit. This water will never be reused (unless it IS pumped into the ocean). It will be treated and pumped into the ground to eventually mix with your drinking water, as most SF cities currently do

More sensible would be a incremental improvement in treatment and continued ocean recycling. Of course, it's not their own money they are spending.

Lesculie needs to repeat her Hooked on
Phonics over here...

It says 300 Million gallons per DAY, as in 24 hours, not YEAR, as in 365 days.

The treated wastewater, usually called GRAY water, will be used for Golf Course watering and other uses but it is not fit for human consumption.

The money Lesculie is saving for the next few years before this takes effect could be used on reading lessons...

Seventeen years before this crime ends is far too little, far too late. Anyone who uses the waters from PBC to MDC knows the impact these pipes are having on our seashore. It's deplorable that our beaches- known around the world- are in such comprised condition.

The scare tactics used by the criminals responsible for this situation should be seen for what they are. All people of Florida should push hard and long for a much faster cure to an absolutely inexcusable situation.

I got some 25 cent/gal. gas to go with that $20/month sewer bill.

This will be an interesting engineering challenge considering that at least 300 million gallons per day of recycled water will need to end up somewhere, everyday. Also, when it rains, there is no demand for recycled water but 300 MGD will STILL need to be disposed of. Also, on days of heavy rainfall, the 300 MGD will grow to about 600 MGD due to rain derived inflow and infiltration in the collection system. Delivering recycled water to the end user will necessitate the installation of piping systems throughout the counties which will create issues with traffic. I would be surprised if this project is completed on schedule.

Well... if it was cheap and easy, it probably would have been done a long time ago (on the second thought, this is Florida so maybe not).

The irony here is that the ocean and beaches are the major reason why tourists come here (a significant part of our economy) and a significant reason why a lot of us moved down here instead of Arizona or somewhere in the desert.

At the same time, we are dumping 300 million gallons of poorly on untreated wastewater (sewage) right in front of our overpriced condo buildings.

That's around 500 Olympic swimming pools worth of human waste into the ocean, just off the beach, every day!

Hope you enjoyed your swim today,(and NO, that was not a Snickers bar float past junior a second ago...)

The sooner, the better !

Now lets get after the Water Mgt Comissioners to try harder to get us more potable water and keep their paws out of the developers and rich golf clubs pockets !

We are not the only seaside town on this vast Earth. There are some cities that have adequately dealt with these same issues. Is it too much to ask:

1) Which city should we base ours on?

2) How much will it cost?

3) What's the downside of waiting till the last minute?

Kindly leave Charlie alone as he is quite busy drafting a new bill. He is doing his best to insure that our kids can now bring their guns to school.

Ironically, the ocean outfalls were the "environmentally preferred alternative" about 28 years ago when the State required that all the smaller wastewater plants were consolidated. That is over and above the deep wells to which the wastewater will now need to be sent. The SFWMD has also outlined that the majority of the utilities in South Florida need to go to the brackish Floridan Aquifer, which happens to be adjacent to the boulder zone that the deep wells put the effluent into...
Ironically, the State chose to take this up after a five year study by NOAA that specifically showed minimal adverse impacts. It is a good thing that non-technical legislators ignore technical literature and tell the utilities how to do their jobs...

What do other towns do with that water? Errr... Septic systems? We used to have those in Fort Lauderdale (my house did) and the grass was always greener over the part of the yard where the drain field was. Didn't have to water the lawn. What was wrong with that? Cities don't have to treat/dump the water if they don't collect it in the first place.

About time Charlie.

Boo-hoo for Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. They will be forced to spend about $600 per person in the three counties to upgrade their system. Not a lot of money when you compare the state mandate handed to Monroe County. Advanced water treatment is costing about $22,000 per household to provide (approximately $10,000) per person in the entire county and it must be complete by 2010. The average sewer bill here is $75.00 per month South Florida needs to wakeup and address the issue NOW. Not giving them until 2025 to corect the problem.

The government won't let us drill for the huge deposits of oil off of our coast because they say that would be bad for the environment. But they pump sewage right off the beach and will do so for another decade?

I could just see it now. Crist's Legacy and Claim to Fame, " Phased out six @#$% pipes with grand success".
He should join "Bush's World Class Failure Club"

Amazing! We are going to PHASE OUT dumping garbage into the ocean.

Treat the water in ponds seems to have been successful for the area and wildlife. Wacotahatchee is a good example of that, and when the pond at the end of Boynton Beach Blvd, is working and on it seems to have a good outcome. Well if it is working!!!!! But gray water is a lost resource that should be saved into the system. So little of our water use well just toilet wastes should be disposed of. all else would do well with biodegradable soaps and treatment. We waste sooooo much useable water. We have been collecting off the roof and my god we can store so much water from a storm.All of us putting a good idea forward can go a long way to restoring our water needs and waste. The barrel guy in our area is on the right track. Less water into the system means more water for us.

There seems to be a lack of reading going on here. Note, they are not pumping a bunch of terds out into the ocean. It is treated wastewater and is not a health hazard. It is, however, full of excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) that cause algae growth on the reefs.

The other use for this water (as stated in the article) is for watering lawns and our precious golf courses.

There are two things that they fail to mention in this article. Last time I heard, roughly half of our potable water supply was being used to water landscaping in South Florida. With these changes, 300M gallons of potable water can be freed up for the population. They do manage to mention that this is about what we are going to need to supply the expected population increase. Keep in mind that this increase in population will cause further burden on the water system (read as added tax dollars) that will not have to be spent with the new system.

Florida is surrounded by water and oil, there is NO shortage.

Actively support candidates for elected government office
who will vote to REMOVE government regulations
that restrict free-market production and distribution of water and oil.

www.ecological-engineering.com where we grow clean water ... nuf said

Sorry Concerned Citizen, but the effluent IS a health hazard. It is treated to secondary levels, not tertiary. Tertiary water can be used for irrigation and is not a hazard. You can drink it if you get over the mental part. Special systems and precautions need to be taken to use secondary water (Non-aerial spray, etc.).

Concerned Citizen wrote:

There seems to be a lack of reading going on here. Note, they are not pumping a bunch of terds out into the ocean. It is treated wastewater and is not a health hazard. It is, however, full of excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) that cause algae growth on the reefs.
The other use for this water (as stated in the article) is for watering lawns and our precious golf courses.
There are two things that they fail to mention in this article. Last time I heard, roughly half of our potable water supply was being used to water landscaping in South Florida. With these changes, 300M gallons of potable water can be freed up for the population. They do manage to mention that this is about what we are going to need to supply the expected population increase. Keep in mind that this increase in population will cause further burden on the water system (read as added tax dollars) that will not have to be spent with the new system.