There was an article in the Sun Sentinel Feb. 27th which said:“A successful seven-month pilot project at Sunrise's Southwest Wastewater Treatment Facility may provide a viable, albeit expensive, solution. In the $369,000 study funded in part by a $170,000 grant from the South Florida Water Management District, engineers were able to remove "99.99
percent of all contaminants," including bacteria and viruses, said Hector Castro, the city's utilities director and a veteran of 30 years in the water-treatment business.
Using a membrane filter, a reverse-osmosis process and ultraviolet light, they produced [treated waste] water of "a quality that meets Broward County [drinking water] standards," Castro said.
He said he was confident the water was clean enough to pump "10, 12 or 15 feet underground to recharge the Biscayne Aquifer," South Florida's main source of fresh water.”
I say in response:
You really need to be suspicious of these things that report in percentage reduction. As far as I know, the water that emerges from this site has 10 times the level of total Phosphorus required for Everglades systems. It cannot be put in the marsh or used for restoration. They are putting it back in the ground to indirectly recharge the aquifer.
I don't think they are specifically monitoring for Emerging Pollutants of Concern "EPOCS" or micro-contaminants (see Gimleteye's post above).
Also note, there are no phosphate standards for drinking water, and there are none for EPOCS.
Claiming it meets drinking water standards is no big deal - it probably does. I am not saying this is bad, it is just not as wonderful as it sounds at first. There is tons of spin going on here. In fact, the demand for supplying good water quality quickly for population increases is spinning "drinkable" water claims out of control.
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P.S. MAYOR ALVAREZ: WHERE IS THE MIAMI DADE WACKENHUT AUDIT? I AM NOT GOING TO STOP ASKING TILL WE GET IT.
6 comments:
At the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Meeting last week, WASA did a report on the progress being made in producing more water. A very astute young woman asked the county employee what about the hormones in the water. The employee danced around the subject and said that impurities were being removed and it could include things such as hormones...BUT not once did she commit that the county process would remove the hormones which we would drink. She said the county was using the more current technology available. Which apparently is not entirely truthful, since the woman in the audience had done her homework and says there is a better method to make sure hormones are removed. So, I guess we better double our efforts to look at the WASA and the South Florida Management group who are coming into line with the county’s way of thinking.
Although the AP news report includes Miami as was one of the cities tested, it is curious that when searching for Miami findings, nothing comes up and some local news reports state that it was not included in study.
Is this another cover up???
I suspect that this region has both high amounts of pharmaceuticals and pesticides.
How do we find out if our water supply has been tested?
Do a public records request maybe for WASA, South Florida Water Management and even the at the federal level. Then compare notes if you can.
Or call Clean Water Action here in Miami ask them.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23563705/
go there.... there is a map showing that the Miami results are pending.
The only way pharma can get into our drinking water is through dumping directly on the ground.
Since we don't recycle our sewage yet there's no way to connect the two.
There is a remote chance that a pipe break could leach untreated sewage into the groundwater and that would include pharma waste, but i think we would have bigger problems than trace amounts of angina medication to worry about at that point.
We do have to worry about testing for EPOCS and the EPA should be pumping tons of money into research but they aren't. Surprised?
When deep well injection of waste was initially considered, there was the presumption that this could only take place for so long (perhaps 8-10 years if I recall). The effluence (did I spell that right) is lighter than the salt water in the brackish water of the lower level of the Floridan Aquifer (sp??) and, therefore, it is rising up into that area. There is the presence of amonia there. So, here's my question - if they are using Floridan water, wouldn't there be hormones or toxins or drugs that might get up to the top layer of the Floridan? Someone will know this, I am sure. We are not using re-use water yet. That's when the drugs start showing up I believe. Don't get me wrong, re-use is needed, but I would like to see that technology used as little as we can get away with. You know, I don't know enough about this and a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Someone else, please weigh in here!
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