Articles on
Water Quality and Wastewater Issues
1. Wastewater in
the Florida Keys: A Call for Stricter Regulation of
Nonpoint Source Pollution [Septic Tanks and
cesspits]
http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol162/darden.pdf
2. A statement by
Reef Relief on poor water quality taking its toll.
(LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE) http://www.reefrelief.org/WaterQualityIssues/keys_body.html
3. Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary Smothered By Sewage
Funding Dilemma
article by Donald Sutherland - Part 2 of 2
Environmentalists, federal and local government officials
locked in debate over which waste treatment technology to
use. BAT (Best Available Technologies) versus AWT
(Advance Wastewater Treatment)
(LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE) Article at http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may99/1999L-05-19-01.html
"Environment News Service: Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Smothered by Sewage
May 19, 1999 news report that "Research … indicates waste with nutrients, bacteria, and viruses from the (Florida) Keys' 1,000 Class V underground injection control (UIC) wells, 35,000 septic on-site disposal systems, and 10,000 illegal cesspits is migrating into offshore waters stimulating algae growth and killing seagrass and coral." Officials are debating the extent of the effects of the sewage on the marine ecosystem, the methods of cleaning it up, and how the clean up will be funded."
4. Florida Keys NMS
Water Quality Protection Program
http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/research_monitoring/wqpp.html
Note: A .pdf
version of the Environmental Protection Agency White
Paper discussing
water quality
issues in the Florida Keys is available for printing at
http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/research_monitoring/wqpp_white_paper.pdf
5. Water Quality in
the Florida Keys: The Time to Act is Now
Dr. Bill
Kruczynski, Florida Keys Program Scientist, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
Article is at
(LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE) http://sustainableseas.noaa.gov/missions/florida1/background/water_quality.html
6. Human Viruses in
the Coastal Waters of Florida
Joan B. Rose,
Ph.D., Professor of Water Pollution Microbiology, College
of Marine Science, University of South Florida
"Surveys indicated
that water quality in many of the canals and tributaries
in the study areas was impacted by nearby residential
areas, which had septic tank densities as high as five
per acre."
Overall, between
70% and 95% of the sites surveyed along the West Coast of
Florida to the Florida Keys tested positive for enteric
viruses, which include coxsackie viruses, Hepatitis A
viruses, and Norwalk virus, which are associated with
diarrhea, aseptic meningitis, and myocarditis.
" . . .
conventional septic tank and drain field design provides
little treatment for viruses. In coastal areas of
Florida, with sandy and limestone aquifers, high water
tables, and tidal influences, viruses can readily migrate
from the subsurface to surficial groundwaters and
subsequently to surface waters. "
" The future of
water quality in these areas remains at risk."
(LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE) Complete article at http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/coastlines/dec00/humanviruses.html
Another article
about Rose's research at (LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE) http://www.ems.psu.edu/info/explore/FecVir.html
reports that
"Within only 11 hours of a flush, she has collected the
septic-tank viruses from nearby canals around Key Largo.
They were found in marine waters 12 hours after that.
Some were found in canals within 8 hours and in the sea
within 16 hours. Rose timed the viruses' travel at 35
meters per hour. She attributes this speedy travel to the
pumping action of tides around Key Largo. Viruses travel
at an average of only 1.7m/h in the middle Keys due to a
smaller effect of tidal pumping and geological factors.
This is still fast enough for excreted viruses to dump
into the Florida Bay within 76 hours."
7. Waste disposal
wells and septic tanks in the Florida Keys are polluting
groundwater and surface marine water in the Florida keys,
according to a recent study in Water Research.
John H. Paul,
University of South Florida
"Our work suggests
that wastewater and associated microorganisms, injected
into the sub-surface environment of the Florida Keys, can
rapidly enter into surface waters ... These findings
argue strongly for a re-evaluation of injection wells as
a method to dispose of wastewater in the Florida Keys."
