The water releases east and west from Lake Okeechobee are big news but what about all those septic tanks along the IRL?

The water releases from Lake Okeechobee and the efforts to keep the Herbert Hoover Dike in safe condition are big news of late. Below is a blog post from last year following the failed plan by some environmental groups to spend $3+ billion ("billion" with a 'b') to move water south of Lake Okeechobee to be cleaned and then sent to the Everglades. In October of last year this article from TCPalm titled, "Research: Septic systems ‘primary' source of river, reef pollution" in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) was published. 

The debate about water levels in Lake Okeechobee is an important one but shouldn't the debate about so many communities along the Indian River Lagoon using septic tanks also be a part of the debate? JP Sasser has thoughts about this as you'll read in this blog post from last year:

On the heels of the pitch by The Palm Beach Post over the end of the "sheet flow" debate the focus may now shift to our friends north and east of Lake Okeechobee. Here is how I ended my post on the end of the Everglades land buy and the grief by the Post:

Now about all those septic tanks . . .

And wouldn't you know it, the VERY NEXT DAY this "Point Of View" appears in the Post editorial page by JP Sasser, the former Mayor of Pahokee:

JP Sasser was right all along.

Here is an excerpt from Mr. Sasser's contribution to the debate (with emphasis in red):

     The final point was that the cities of Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay pumped our raw sewage into the lake. We have had modern centralized sewer systems for over 40 years.
     The Treasure Coast needs to look in the mirror. Some waters in Florida are polluted with human fecal matter — particularly the IRL [Indian River Lagoon].
     “Buy the land and send water south” is not the only road to water salvation.
     My question is: When are we going to get serious about our water? Florida’s agriculture-industry pollution is regulated statewide and has to meet specific limits. Our septic tanks are not held to the same requirements.

The following video has nothing to do with this debate but it is an interesting look back at the political career of JP Sasser: