Palm Beach County Reef Rescue Response to Lake Worth Herald Article

(Another re-post associated with my op-ed in the Lake Worth Herald)

The following was submitted as a comment to the post "In Tomorrow's Lake Worth Herald". As some of you may not be familiar with the ability to leave comments here and where they may be seen, I am reproducing it here for for better access. Furthermore, please follow their links as there is a lot of information regarding all of the ocean outfalls that imperil our reef system.

And, don't forget that you can leave comments - you will see the icon at the bottom of each post. You may also review comments there, as well. As always, thanks for stopping by. - Wes

The June 28, 2007 Lake Worth Herald opinion piece by Wes Blackman provided an excellent history of Lake Worth and how south Florida has managed to arrive at a point in time were it has reached the limit of its carrying capacity. The ever increasing population has developed most of the usable land and is about to suck the last drops of drinking water from the surficial aquifer. The limited potable water supply prompted Lake Worth to embark upon a grandiose plan to remove brackish water from a deeper aquifer and treat it with a reverse osmosis system. Unfortunately the plan failed to consider an economical and ecologically responsible means of disposal for the process wastewater. The city’s solution to use a defunct ocean outfall pipe to discharge the wastewater onto a coral reef, one of the most sensitive and threatened habitats on the planet, was met with outrage from coral reef experts and the environmental community.
In an 11th hour scramble to salvage the disposal plan the city has been drawn into a struggle between the FDEP, consultants hired by wastewater utilities, coral reef experts and environmental advocates.

The first casualty of any battle is the truth and this fight is no exception. The final determination as to where the city will be allowed to dispose of their waste will be based on factual evidence. A small bottle of clear liquid held up in front of a crowd does not fit that bill, nor do analogies about the purity of rainwater. The fate of the permit to discharge wastewater into a coral reef ecosystem will be based fact.

In an effort to address confusion surrounding these issues and in an attempt to limit the dissemination of misinformation Palm Beach County Reef Rescue has posted a web page. That page discusses many of the concerns that have been raised and invites the public to participate in the discussion.

The web page can be found online at:

http://www.reef-rescue.org/research/
LakeWorthNPDES.pdf

(Important: copy the URL carefully, i.e. no spaces. It is a large 6.72 MB pdf file which you will need an Adobe Reader to open.)

Our intent is to provide facts to policy makers and the citizenry so they can make an informed decision.

Palm Beach County Reef Rescue
www.reef-rescue.org