Broward County wants to escape a state mandate to shut down a pipe that discharges treated sewage into the ocean off Pompano Beach, saying the cost would be huge and the environmental payoff negligible.
The pipe is one of six in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties ordered closed by a 2008 state law, after a campaign by environmentalists who argued the pipes were polluting coral reefs and wasting fresh water.
The law, which set a deadline of 2025, requires wastewater authorities to improve treatment systems so the water can be used for purposes such as irrigating golf courses, watering lawns and recharging underground water supplies.
Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue, an environmental group that led the campaign to close the pipes, said environmental advocates would put up “quite a fight” to prevent Broward from keeping the pipe in service.
The pipe off Delray Beach shut down last year. Boca Raton expects to be reusing 100 percent of its water by 2015.
Link to Sun Sentinel article and video: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-waste-outfall-broward-20101025,0,2211108.story
[...] Learn about the Broward County attempt to undermine Florida outfall legislation and continue to keep dumping sewage on our reefs. See: Broward wants to keep dumping sewage in the ocean [...]
By: Reef Rescue Invite – FL Dive Show & News « Reef Rescue – Coral Reef Blog on November 30, 2010
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