Protect Florida’s Drinking Water and Reef
In 2009 the Surfrider Foundation Florida Chapter and other NGOs were successful in passing an Outfall Closure bill. In the most recent legislative session, there has been push back from the South Florida utilities. Florida Senate Bill 796 included some troubling provisions that could detrimentally impact the treatment and reuse of water in some of our largest counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. The legislation delays the requirement for compliance with a state mandate to eliminate ocean outfall, improve wastewater treatment and beneficially reuse a portion of that wastewater by five years. Unfortunately, as is too often the case during our 60-day legislative session, some troubling provisions of this legislation appear to have been overlooked. Of key relevance is the grave concern that injecting this into the aquifer would increase nutrients in our aquifers since drinking water standards do not adequately limit nutrients. Studies have shown that due to our limestone geography, this can easily come back through upwellings onto our reefs and into our sensitive bay areas.
- Chapter:
- State: FL
- Country: USA
- Theme: Clean Water
- Launch Date: April 01 2011
- Completion Date: May 2011
