President's budget called threat to Florida's water

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Feb. 20, 2004

ENVIRONMENT


President's budget called threat to Florida's water

Environmentalists say some proposed federal budget cuts leave Florida's drinking water and beaches vulnerable to pollution from raw sewage discharges.


TALLAHASSEE - (AP) -- Claiming Florida's drinking water and beaches are threatened by raw sewage discharges, environmental groups Thursday said President Bush's budget cuts on water projects will create health dangers and higher utility rates.

The pollution comes largely from raw sewage discharges, underground injection of sewage and leaking septic tanks, according to a study completed jointly by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Integrity Project.

The environmentalists cited a report that says fecal bacteria was detected in groundwater, generally at depths of approximately 1,000 feet in Miami-Dade County's South District Wastewater Treatment Plant.

They said both the president and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, aren't doing enough to protect the state's water.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/7994122.htm



This is totally unacceptable.

[izzie]

1. This is what happens and how things used to work.

Now I grew up on the water edge at a beach resort. When we grew up in the 30's and 40's sewers ran out to a tank and then to an over tank then to the rocks. The second tank was in place of a leach field. Now we lived their all year and this was the costly system my father put in, most summer people and winter people did not have it. They had pipes that went to the ocean. The rats were as big as the cats.It was OK by the town and state. All those rich summer people did not want to pay any more in taxes for a sewer. A town of 600 could not do it but you would have to get it from the 20000 who came in the summer. Took many years for the state and town to fix that little problem so you can bet if they had tested the beaches they would have been dirty all those years.The marsh with the birds are gone from this town years ago as they have been filled in for summer homes. Thank God for Carson, her book, saved some of the land just north of this town, in Kennebunk Maine for the birds, and you can still walk that great marsh.For some strange reason the Republican's seem to want that system once more. I do not think they really do, if they understood how they would have to live.

[RamblingRose]

2. The water tastes and smells awful too, mostly due to the sulfur.

All of the sidewalks are stained from people watering their lawns. The stench from the Indian River (lagoon) doesn't make you want to drink the water either. We always buy bottled water when visiting home.