With no end to the drought facing the Southeast, metropolitan areas are looking to their wastewater for answers. Wastewater reuse in South Florida could put an end to Miami's irresponsible practice of dumping 300 million gallons of partially treated sewage a day the city currently pumps into the ocean. After twenty years of dumping sewage a couple of miles off shore, where fisherman seek their livelihoods and scuba divers enjoy some of the best diving the east coast has to offer, Florida finally sees the value in preserving the resource it's been throwing away. According to the Associated Press and the Herald Tribune, the Florida Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation unanimously passed SB 1302, which mandates a stop to the ocean dumping by 2013, stricter sewage treatment guidelines by 2018 and the elimination of all dumping by 2025. Let's hope that the federal government takes notice and takes similar measures to conserve and protect our country's freshwater resources.

And now the Spills of the Week:

West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) and its neighbors in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and other states have spent a large part of our time during the past year working to stop a proposal by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) that would have lowered water quality standards for the entire length of the Ohio River-- 981 miles-- by allowing more sewage-related bacteria into the river during periods of heavy rain, snowmelt, and high water.

As the Slog has shown, there are sewage problems all over the country. Nevertheless, I was shocked when I was in Mississippi recently and had some time to explore the sewage situation there.

My first stop was to investigate a sewage treatment plant near Jackson, MS. In the stream below the sewage treatment plant, I found a large buildup of sludge and no signs of anything living in the stream.