Where is your Poop headed? Find out July 18th. By Geniusofdespair

There is a Sewage Injection Wells permitting hearing on July 18, 2008 at 10:30 A.M., at the North Miami Beach Public Library, 1601 NE 164th Street, North Miami Beach. Apparently July 18th is a busy day (see previous post). You are welcome to attend to comment to The Department of Environmental Protection on what Miami Dade County is doing with your poop. Whether out to sea or underground, I know, it is hard to let it go...but not to worry 3 wells have been rated to release it underground at a rate of 18.65 million gallons per day. The fourth well is rated for 14.92 million gallons per day. That is a hell of a lot of poop water being pushed under us. Is that a total of 70.87 millions gallon per day? An average sized home swimming pool has about 22,000 gallons in it. That is like emptying over three million pools a day underground. Wow!

The rest of this post is not for the faint of heart, it is technical. What it says in a nutshell: The wells leak. Mind you these wells can contaminate your drinking water as the plan is: They aren’t suppose to leak. They say the leak is caused by a “temporary conduit.” Since the wells are suppose to release all this secondary treated wastewater BELOW our drinking water and stay confined way down there...we would think a leak migrating upward would be of utmost importance. Doesn’t appear to be, it looks like they are just changing the parameters/protocol of the test to rid themselves of this migration data. Show up July 18th and yell a lot about this or you might find treated poop in your drinking water.

Here is a more technical explanation from the notice (I wrote a line or two):

The draft permit is to operate four Class I injection wells. The injection wells have been installed for the disposal and monitoring of non-hazardous secondary treated domestic wastewater (effluent) generated from the M-DWASD North District Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), located at 2575 N.E. 151st Street, North Miami. They are going to release some of this secondary treated wastewater. Injection Wells IW-1N, IW-2N and IW-4N have been rated to inject up to a flow rate of 10.0 feet per second or 18.65 million gallons per day (MGD) (peak hour flow), while IW-3N has been rated to inject up to a flow rate of 8.0 feet per second or 14.92 MGD.

Each injection well is constructed with a 24-inch outside diameter (O.D.) final casing, and each includes an open hole (injection) interval located in the "Boulder Zone", within the lower Oldsmar Formation. Each open hole extends from the base of the final casing to the total depth of the well.

The lower monitoring zones monitor for reasonable assurance of vertical confinement of injected fluids and external mechanical integrity of the injection wells. The first two injection wells that were tested, IW-2N and IW-3N, had undergone operational testing for two years under respective previously issued construction and testing permits (circa 1997 - 1999).

Towards the end of the testing period for these two wells, increases began to develop in concentrations of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and ammonia in the lower monitoring zones positioned below the base of the USDW. The increases were observed at all four lower monitoring zones (FA-1N, FA-2N, FA-3N and FA-4N).

In view of the changes and M-DWASD stated position that they were a consequence of a temporary conduit at IW-1N (during its construction) that allowed fluid to migrate above M-DWASD’s redefined primary confining unit, M-DWASD proposed and the Department approved implementation of a lower monitoring zone purging program. Purging activities ensued from March 2003 to approximately August 2005, with some interruption. The purging effort was implemented towards reducing the increased ammonia concentrations that had developed. It was also conducted to collect additional data towards verifying M-DWASD s position that the lower monitoring zones increased concentrations of ammonia (and TKN) were a consequence of a temporary conduit at IW-1N that allowed fluid to migrate above M-DWASD’s redefined primary confining unit. In its final purging report, M-DWASD referred to continuing positive purging results and concluded that the purging program had been successful. However, lower monitoring zone concentrations of TKN and ammonia remain above baseline (pre-injection) levels.

All persons interested in the foregoing permitting decision are invited to attend a public meeting to be held on July 18, 2008 at 10:30 A.M., at the North Miami Beach Public Library Large Meeting Room, located at 1601 NE 164th Street, North Miami Beach, FL 33162. Written comments may be sent to the Department of Environmental Protection, 400 North Congress Avenue, Suite 200, West Palm Beach, FL 33401, up until the close of the public meeting. All comments received within the thirty day period will be considered in formulation of the Department's final decision regarding permit issuance.