What’s going on
In the past couple of months, six parks in Okaloosa County tested positive for fecal bacteria, between two and five thousand gallons of sewage spilled into the Destin Harbor, and the city of St. Petersburg pumped 6.6 million more gallons of dirty water into the Floridan Aquifer following heavy rain events.
An investigation by the Sarasota Herald Tribune found that over the last decade, roughly 1.6 million gallons of wastewater have been released into our state’s waterways.
Why it matters
Florida has a lot of people. As the third most populous state in the U.S., we are home to 21 million people, and host more than 100 million tourists annually. That means we have a lot of waste, and the places to store and dispose of that waste are limited. Hurricanes and rising sea levels are increasingly overhwhelming aging wastewater and stormwater systems, causing spills.
When wastewater gets into our waterways, the bacteria can pose a risk to public health. Wastewater also brings nutrients that can lead to problems like harmful algal blooms.
Some cities are coming up with new solutions to deal with the waste problem, like turning fields into wetlands that can naturally filter the water.
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