| February 18, 2005
Suit: Sewage in water
Miami-Dade allowed to inject waste into aquifer, Sierra Club says
BY AARON DESLATTE
FLORIDA TODAY
TALLAHASSEE - The Sierra Club is charging Florida has failed to follow
federal law by allowing treated sewage injected underground to leach
into
drinking water.
In a suit filed in federal court Thursday in Tallahassee, the group
argued
the state has known for a decade that wastewater wells in Miami-Dade
County
were leaking contaminants into the upper Floridan aquifer, part of a
vast
underground water system that stretches to North Carolina.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act bans injecting wastewater into
the
ground if it migrates into drinking water supplies.
At a Tallahassee press conference, Sierra Club representatives said
injected
sewage containing fecal coliform, nitrogen and ammonia was being detected
in
the aquifer in 1994.
The suit names the state Department of Environmental Protection and
its
secretary, Colleen Castille, and asks the court to order Florida to
comply
with the federal act. It contends the agency warned the county about
the
violations in 1994, but let its wastewater facility continue to expand
its
injection system.
"Disposing of the sewage underground is the cheapest disposal
method out
there. It's allowed for rapid growth in Florida at very minimal cost,"
said
Kristin Henry, a San Francisco attorney for the group.
Cities from Jacksonville and Tallahassee to Lakeland and Tampa get
drinking
water from parts of the Floridan aquifer.
In Brevard County, Cocoa and Melbourne have wells drawing water from
the
aquifer.
Brevard County pumps about 8 million gallons daily of secondarily treated
sewage into two deep-injection wells more than 2,000 feet deep: one
in
Merritt Island and another in south beaches. The sewage is chemically
treated, but many of the pathogens and nutrients can remain in the
wastewater.
The Sykes Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, 3630 N. Courtenay
Parkway, on north Merritt Island, treats sewage from 9,200 residential
and
460 commercial customers on Merritt Island. The plant injects about
3
million gallons of sewage daily.
The South Beaches Wastewater Treatment Plant, at 2800 South A1A Melbourne
beach, serves 15,375 residents and 700 businesses in the cities of Satellite
Beach, Indian Harbor Beach, Indialantic and Melbourne Beach.
The plant pumps about 5 million gallons daily into its deep injection
well.
The Florida department issued a four-paragraph rebuttal saying Florida
has
spent $1.8 billion to treat stormwater and upgrade facilities, and that
drinking water "is better protected today then it was five years
ago."
In 2002, Florida's counties and cities injected 361 million gallons
of
partially treated sewage a day underground, according to DEP records.
The
department said the more than 125 injection wells in operation "meet
rigorous standards and are closely monitored" for leakage.
The suit doesn't allege the contaminants have caused any physical harm
to
residents.
"The reason nobody's turned up sick is because nobody's looking,"
said John
Glenn, the safe drinking water chairman of Sierra's Florida chapter.
Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday he's "not concerned" by the charges.
Sierra Club sued the state last year over separate alleged clean water
violations in a case that's still being litigated.
"If there are any specific suggestions why we should be concerned,
I'd be
happy to hear from them," the governor said. "Lawsuits aren't
the typical
way that one gives a thoughtful heads-up about water-quality issues."
Brevard wells
The Sierra Club has cataloged nine deep-injection well sites in Brevard
County. The special interest group says Florida is not enforcing federal
clean water laws and allowing the wells to inject sewage underground.
The Brevard sites and number of wells:
* Sykes Creek, 3
* West Melbourne, 1
* Melbourne, 1
* Intersil, 2
* Palm Bay, 1
* South beaches, 1
* Melbourne (Grant Street), 1
* Rockledge, 1
* Palm Bay (reverse osmosis) 1, 1 proposed Source: The Sierra Club
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