Dying FL Reef Traced To Partially-Treated Sewage Outflow Pipe (No!)

[hatrack]

A pipe dumping millions of gallons of treated sewage into the Atlantic Ocean daily from a wastewater plant operated by Delray Beach and Boynton Beach is triggering algae blooms that have killed part of a popular coral reef.

A group of recreational divers called Palm Beach County Reef Rescue discovered the alleged connection between the pipe and the damage. The group's scientific study of the reef's demise has drawn the attention of state and county environmental regulators. The divers say a 30-inch-wide pipe from the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant is spewing a nitrogen- and nutrient-rich flow that drifts north with the Gulf Stream current. That is fertilizing the profuse growth of filamentous red algae on the north end of Gulf Stream Reef, an outcropping in 45 to 85 feet of water off Boynton Beach, 1.5 miles down current from the pipe and directly in line with it.

EDIT

The same kind of algae overtaking Gulf Stream Reef has cropped up on extensive areas of Broward County's middle reef tract the past two years, environmental officials said. After the Gulf Stream Reef bloom began in March 2002, Tichenor, a Boynton Beach resident, took notice with other divers, and began to check out what they suspected was the source: the pipe streaming cloudy green to brown sewage into clear blue water off the beach end of Atlantic Avenue. Tichenor had given up a 20-year career focused on contamination assessment to own and operate a window treatment business, but he put his old expertise back to work. He and his group gathered treatment plant outflow data, made numerous monitoring dives and kept logs of changes in the bloom, snapped photos and prepared graphics to build their case.

After its work received a cool reception at first from state environmental regulators, Tichenor said, the group cranked out more reports and approached more agencies. The result: The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Palm Beach County's environmental department both think Reef Rescue has built a compelling case. This summer, the department told the plant's executive director, Robert Hagel, to devise a monitoring program that would collect water samples near the reef and pipe. The agency also asked him to investigate ways to reduce the volume of treated sewage or nitrogen content injected into the ocean, and suggested examining whether the pipe could be extended farther offshore to avoid affecting the reefs.

EDIT

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-psewerpipe16oct16,0,1885960.story?track=mostemailedlink

Yeah, let's not look at ways to maybe fully treat the sewage - that might cost real money! No, instead, let's extend the pipe farther offshore and hope that it makes the problem less noticable. In any case, now we can study it for a few dozen years . . .

[Deep13]

1. There are too fucking many of us!!!

6.3 Billion is unprecedented for any one species of large animal and we are suffocating in our own waste.

[amandabeech]

2. All that nitrogen could be recycled and replace nitrogen fertilizer

currently made with considerable amounts of natural gas.

I'm sure that phosphorus and potassium are also included in the outflow. Both are important agricultural chemicals and both are in finite supply. The U.S. may have 60-70 years of phosphorus left, then it must be imported from Morocco, China or somewhere in the Middle East. Potassium is mined in nearby and, amazingly, still friendly Canada.

We are wasting precious resources AND damaging our marine environment. What a great one-two punch!!

[BeFree]

3. Meanwhile...

....on the other side of the state the sewage is not pumped directly into the gulf, instead it's pumped into the ground. Of course the ground is karst limestone aquifer, from which they used to pump water up to the surface. But since those wells became polluted they just tutrned around and polluted them even more.

The problem is, as you might imagine, the sewage eventually finds it's way into the gulf, indeed, it may be why the red tide found there now is so extreme.

[philb]

4. Florida waters are very hot; global warming is damaging coral reefs all

over the world. Florida also has lots of sewage, which contains lots of mercury(dental amalgam is the number one source)
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~berniew1/damspr2f.html
and as the article says nutrients and lots of other bad stuff.
Seafood is in major trouble all over Florida with high mercury levels in most types of predator fish(mostly what is eaten)
http://www.flcv.com/flhg.html and other problems. Also dying sea grass, dead zones, red tide everywhere,etc. Global warming and hot water temperatures are making it all worse. But also making big hurricanes one of which is about to disperse some of the bad stuff temporarily.

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Another Argument For Eco-Friendly Sewage Treatment

The plight of these reefs is another argument for more eco-friendly sewage treatment plants. I understand that there are technologies in the lab that would not only better treat the effluent, but convert at least some of the end-process into electricity that could be sold to the electric grid and lower energy costs for area consumers and businesses.

Or do Florida's developers want to let things hang until the red tides turn the beaches into bio-hazards?

[slor]

6. We should be using Thermal Depolymerization...

to treat all sewage!