fTALLAHASSEE — South Florida’s everyday practice of pumping about 300 million gallons of sewage into the ocean would be phased out under a plan unanimously approved Wednesday by a state Senate committee.
Six water-treatment plants in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are the only ones in the state that currently use outfalls to shoot wastewater about one to three miles offshore. Lawmakers want water managers to find ways to treat the sewage so it can be reused for irrigation, industrial purposes and replenishing wetlands.
“If we don’t do something, the long-term plan would be to simply continue to dump into the ocean 300 million gallons per day, and I think we all understand that’s just not a proper use of that water,” said Sen. Burt Saunders, a Naples Republican who sponsored the bill.