Please read the entire article - but here is an excerpt:
Miami-Dade’s recent sewage spills have caught the eye of the state, which fined the county $123,000 for violating its agreement to stop spilling wastewater into the ocean and issued a stern warning: clean up your act.
Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection warned Miami-Dade in April that its wastewater treatment plant on Virginia Key had “multiple deficiencies,” including broken and trash-clogged equipment used to process waste and a “large number” of spills.
In a final order published Thursday, the agency listed some of the county’s recent spills, which violated a 2013 agreement with the state and the United States Environmental Protection Agency to fix the county’s aging and leaky sewage system.
The state said Miami-Dade had six wastewater spills between 2020 and 2022, a total of more than 8 million gallons — 7.4 million of which was recovered — and 24 “effluent exceedances” between 2014 and 2022, which is when the water released from the sewage facility isn’t fully treated to remove all bacteria.For those spills, DEP fined Miami-Dade $123,000, and vowed to levy additional fines for any unauthorized spills from 2022 onward.
Seriously - when is this going to stop? Address this issue - now and permanently.
And as an aside - why punish the taxpayers $123,000 by levying a fine. Punish those actually responsible - the officials - for their failure to protect us. We are the source of funding to pay the fines, not the officials. If you want real action, force the officials to properly spend to fix the funding and suspend those responsible for failing to act.
That's right - September 6, 2019 - and it is still going on. What has happened since then? Apparently nothing of substance. As I pointed out in 2019 - Update the "Days without a beach advisory sign" and reset to "ZERO"!
Why is this bothering me? Lets compare the coverage regarding the spending priorities of Miami-Dade County elected officials - Miami Herald, Friday, May 10, 2024 - Seven World Cup matches could cost Miami-Dade’s government $46 million, by Douglas Hanks. That's right, our beaches are turning into cesspools while the lavish spending continues on sports! $46 million - ask yourself how deep that $46 million would go to addressing our water issues. Find sponsors for the sports. I have yet to see a fortune 100 or 500 company sponsor a wastewater treatment plant.
Is sports really a bigger priority that addressing our environment or is this just $46 million spend on "bread and circuses" to distract from the failure to act? We need ACTION, not officials who merely "sound alarms." We have the local health department and media to sound the far-too-frequent-alarms. Action from our County Officials needs to follow the alarms - which to date has been Missing In Action.
As to the level of missing in action - as reported in the Miami Herald - Miami-Dade had six wastewater spills between 2020 and 2022, a total of more than 8 million gallons — 7.4 million of which was recovered — and 24 “effluent exceedances” between 2014 and 2022, which is when the water released from the sewage facility isn’t fully treated to remove all bacteria.
Where are the priorities (and transparency)? Our Miami-Dade County is allegedly a tourist based economy yet our County Officials have allowed our beaches to go to crap (pun intended, but it was never funny).
We need ACTION, not officials who merely "sound alarms." It hasn't changed (maybe it has changed - for the worse) Once again, I ask: Is it now required that we check both the weather and the pollution advisories before we decide to go to the beach? Is this our new normal?: Child: "Mommy, can we go to the beach today?" Parent: "Let's me check first to see if the toxin levels are acceptable." Note the use of the term "acceptable" rather than clean - yuck!
Here we are in 2024 and we are no better off than 2019.
Elections matter.
Our environment and health should matter as well.
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