Few people in Florida think about where their sewage ends up and we assume that the government is protecting us and the environment, but this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for people to be swimming right next to a sewage outfall pipe and not even realize it.

Last week, the Florida Clean Water Network released a report on the current condition of thousands of domestic wastewater treatment facilities along the Gulf Coast of Florida reveals that decades of poor planning and lax enforcement of the Clean Water Act has created an infrastructure meltdown. Our research found that many of Florida's domestic wastewater facilities are either over-capacity at times or simply not performing at levels for which they are designed.

A construction accident at the Salisbury, MD wastewater treatment Plant on Feb. 7 resulted in a reported 5,000 gallons of partially treated sewage being discharged into the Wicomico River through an on-site storm drain that feeds directly into the river.

On March 26 another construction accident while installing plant upgrades dumped an estimated 28,000 gallons or more of sewage into the river through the same storm drain.

Our local economy is tied to our beaches and our waters. When beaches are closed due to spilled sewage or harmful algae blooms, it trickles down to the hotels and merchants, then the whole area gets a bad rap. In fact, I had friends from out-of-state here last week that wanted to go kayaking and then found out that the beach was closed due to high coliform. Local groups have also had to cancel kayak outings due to these types of conditions.

13 plants are on the DEP’s violation list for non-compliance. Some violations go back years, but the plants remain on the list until they have met all compliancy orders. The violations were compiled from DEP’s latest available public records.The list is after the jump.

I couldn't agree more with the sentiments of Mary Rawl from Friends of Billy Creek about South Florida's dirty little sewage secret. "It is a disgrace in this day and age when we have the technology to clean and treat sewage that we still dump into our waters. And Southeast Florida, especially since it is in a severe drought, could be using this sewage as reuse water in an area where 50% of potable water is used for irrigation!"

The news-media spent a good deal of time the other day talking about the New York City subway floods. As the New York Times pointed out:

This past weekend The Washington Post had a front page story asking if it was safe to swim in the Potomac River. Here in D.C., where most of this office lives, swimming in the river is banned. If you go upstream a little ways though, they think it is safe, most of the time. The article does mention the raw sewage that gets dumped into the Potomac when it rains, but the focus is on people not knowing it is unsafe. Just another example of why we need the Raw Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act.

Now the Spills of the Week:

Spill-Side: A blocked sewer line is being blamed for a 9,000 gallon sewage spill in Riverside, CA.

I've been following sewage spills around the country for several months now. What can I say - it's just one of the simple pleasures of my job. When you follow specific news stories you start to notice reporting patterns and trends. I'd like to share some insight into a strange trend I've noticed.

I want to give some credit to an aspiring journalist in Cape Cod, Massachusetts who is working hard to raise awareness about the problems sewage dumping poses to the Cape.

Photo Courtesy of Surfrider Sebastian InletIt is encouraging to see that surfing is becoming more respected these days. Surfers are now featured in car, credit card, and clothing ads. We're not considered bums anymore, but doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers. But in order to surf we need clean water to surf in, and that is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

If it wasn't bad enough that Florida's gambling cruise-to-nowhere industry is allowed to dump millions of gallons of sewage into the ocean waters just a few miles off shore from some of Florida's most popular beaches, now the state is sending sewage to the coral reef.