The Florida Senate just unanimously voted to ban South Florida local governments by 2025 from pumping up to 300 million brownish gallons of treated sewage into the oceans daily.
Naples Republican Sen. Burt Saunders noted that the sewage is treated to the lowest-standard legally allowed.
When Miami Republican Sen. Alex Villalobos jokingly asked Saunders for the GPS coordinates of the outfall pipes because of the number of fish gathered there, Saunders said: "It's easy to find, you can see the effluent bubbling to the surface... I wouldn't recommend eating those fish."
Six wastewater plants in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are the only ones in the state that shoot treated sewage a few miles offshore through big pipes (left). Saunders, along with environmentalists and divers, wants the South Florida Water Management District to stop it by 2025.
Saunders' bill gives the plants until the end of 2018 to significantly upgrade the way the wastewater is treated, paving the way for it to be reused for industrial and other purposes on-shore. He said money to help local governments upgrade their systems shouold be available through the South Florida Water Management District.
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