{"id":588,"date":"2012-02-13T14:36:46","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T19:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=588"},"modified":"2012-02-13T14:37:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T19:37:40","slug":"miamiherald-com-utilities-seek-break-on-ocean-flushing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2012\/02\/13\/miamiherald-com-utilities-seek-break-on-ocean-flushing\/","title":{"rendered":"MiamiHerald.com: Utilities seek break on ocean flushing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted on Friday, 01.27.12<\/h2>\n
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Read more here: http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2012\/01\/27\/2612159_utilities-seek-break-on-ocean.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Environment<\/h2>\n

Citing more than $1 billion in costs, Miami-Dade and Broward utilities are pushing a bill that would let them continue to use ocean outfalls as back-up for big sewage days<\/h2>\n

By CURTIS MORGAN<\/h3>\n

CMorgan@MiamiHerald.com<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Four years ago, Florida ordered utilities in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties to phase out the decades-long practice of pumping some 300 million gallons a day of sewage into the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Two bills under consideration by the Legislature would push back the deadline for upgrading pollution treatment for the ocean outfalls by two years to 2020 and keep the pipelines flowing after a shutdown deadline of 2025 \u2014 but mainly as occasional relief valves.<\/p>\n

South Florida utility managers contend the changes would result in big savings for customers and produce little environmental impact.<\/p>\n

The bill would cap the annual flow at 5 percent of current volumes. That\u2019s enough, utility managers say, to help them handle sporadic \u201cpeak flow\u201d events when heavy storms can quickly triple the typical volume flowing from toilets and sinks. Building injections wells and treatment systems to handle those peaks could cost $1 billion-plus, they say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just a huge expenditure for that last 5 percent,\u2019\u2019 said, Doug Yoder, deputy director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department. \u201cThis is a very clear example of the point of diminishing returns.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade estimates it would cost the county $820 million to build injection wells, treatment systems and other projects to meet the current law.<\/p>\n

Alan Garcia, director of Broward\u2019s water and wastewater services, echoed the view, saying that the county would have to spend an estimated $300 million on deep wells and treatment to handle peak discharges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is we might have only 20 or 30 days a year when we\u2019d be using those wells,\u2019\u2019 Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The City of Hollywood estimates the change would save it $142 million in construction costs.<\/p>\n

Utilities have long defended the outfalls, saying the sewage was quickly diluted as currents carried it away from outfalls one to three miles offshore in 90 to 100 feet of water. But environmentalists and scuba divers, supported by many scientists, pushed state environmental regulators for years to halt the ocean dumping, arguing that the practice had tainted reefs, marine life and beaches.<\/p>\n

The stuff that flows out of five remaining pipelines is screened of its foulest components but isn\u2019t clean enough to sprinkle on a lawn and is rich in nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus that can trigger explosions of damaging algae that have been found on Southeast Florida reefs.<\/p>\n

The Department of Environmental Protection, in a 2008 report, didn\u2019t make a direct link between sewage and reef damage but said the \u201cweight of the evidence\u2026 calls into question the environmental acceptability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts by the utilities to water down or delay deadlines in the last few years have stalled in the Legislature. The current proposals \u2014a House version sponsored Reps. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, and Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, and identical Senate bill introduced by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami-Dade \u2014 have sailed through committees without opposition or criticism from environmental groups.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection also supports the bill, said spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller. The changes would give utilities more flexibility, she said, reduce costs and ease rate hikes for customers.<\/p>\n

The proposal would also give utilities two additional years \u2014 until 2020 \u2014 to install advanced treatment systems that were designed to reduce nutrient volumes until the outfalls would be closed in 2025. Both Miami-Dade and Broward are taking other measures to meet the nutrient standards to avoid having to install those expensive systems \u2014 diverting sewage flows or using other treatments to reduce nutrients.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wanted to build expensive facilities that would not be needed after seven years,\u2019\u2019 said Miami-Dade\u2019s Yoder.<\/p>\n

The 5 percent limit on ocean dumping would apply on a yearly basis, meaning that on those days of high demand the pipes could flow to permitted capacity. That\u2019s about 37 million gallons a day for Broward and 196 million a day for the two Miami-Dade pipelines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more here: http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2012\/01\/27\/2612159_utilities-seek-break-on-ocean.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Special thanks to Reef Rescue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on Friday, 01.27.12 Read more here: http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2012\/01\/27\/2612159_utilities-seek-break-on-ocean.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy Environment Citing more than $1 billion in costs, Miami-Dade and Broward utilities are pushing a bill that would let them continue to use ocean outfalls as back-up for big sewage days By CURTIS MORGAN CMorgan@MiamiHerald.com Four years ago, Florida ordered utilities in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach … Continue reading MiamiHerald.com: Utilities seek break on ocean flushing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}