Dear Reef Relief Supporters:
We all saw the success of working together get HB457 under control, we could use the same help on SB 796 which will undo group efforts made 2 years ago to close the outfalls in South Florida. Please call you Senators while they are home on break.These Bills include 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 limit nutrients enough. The studies have shown that due to our limestone this can easily come back through upwellings onto our reefs and into our sensitive bay areas.
Our main target is the upcoming Senate Budget Committee as this is where it goes first thing next week, but all Senators need to be aware if this gets pushed through.
