Bad to the Last Drop

Delray Beach Sewage Outfall Pipe Shut Down: It looks like the smokestack of a gigantic ocean liner lying on its side. The Delray Beach, Florida sewage outfall pipe sticks up from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about a mile offshore of the city’s public bathing beaches. The large steel pipe arches up, pointing toward the surface 90 feet above. A brown plume of effluent floated upward and was carried away with the current.

This sewer pipe, and others like it in Florida and other coastal states, is the direct cause of death of coral reefs and marine life. The culprit is nitrogen, in all its forms, and other elements that come out of the pipes. Nitrogen serves as a nutrient for algae. In warm water, algae thrive in a nitrogen-rich environment. In Palm Beach County alone, some 400-million gallons of partially treated sewage is pumped into the Atlantic Ocean each day. Delray Beach contributed 14-million gallons a day, and that has been a source of contention between environmental groups and government authorities.

It is against the law. All of the permits that allowed ocean dumping of sewage under the federal Clean Water Act (NPDES permits) have expired. The Delray Beach permit expired in December 2005, when they were unable to meet the Clean Water Act standards for ocean discharges. The city attempted to bring their sewage treatment system into compliance by spending $17 million — but they failed.

In July 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed legislation that mandated the closure of all six sewer outfall pipes in South Florida. The others are located in the ocean off Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Hollywood, North Miami and Virginia Key. Delray Beach was the first to shut down their 40-year old pipe.

Waves crashed over the fly bridge. Captain Craig Smart was soaked as his vessel, Starfish Enterprise, headed south out of the Boynton Beach Inlet with divers from Palm Beach County Reef Rescue, environmental group Cry of the Water and television cameramen from CBS News.

Ed Tichenor and Terry St. Jean from Reef Rescue and Dan and Stephanie Clark from Cry of the Water brought three bottles of champagne aboard. They would dive on the sewer outfall pipe, perhaps for the last time, a little before 2 o’clock, then watch the plume of effluent cease.

“We’re supposed to get a call when they throw the lever at the plant,” Tichenor said.

“Will they let them in?” asked Stephanie, who was skeptical.

“Yeah, they’ve been more cooperative,” Tichenor replied. “A TV crew is supposed to be there to film them closing the valve.”

It was a victory for divers and environmentalists. Their efforts went to support the need to curtail ocean dumping of sewage. It would do nothing for the millions of gallons of run off that comes from canals and storm drain conduits that run directly into the Intracoastal Waterway and then, at tide change, into the ocean through the Boynton Beach Inlet and other passes.

The Boynton Inlet was never designed for boat traffic. It was made as a cut that permitted sewage and storm water to drain from the ’Lake,” as the wide body of water that is the waterway is called, into the ocean. Otherwise the “Lake” would become a noisome sewage sump. Very unsavory for the billionaires that live in luxury mansions along the water, and not a healthy prospect for tourists that keep Florida’s economy afloat.

There were eight-foot waves and twenty knot winds coming from the south when Captain Smart cleared the inlet and headed six miles south to the sewer outfall pipe. The divers suited up and got ready while the 34-foot Crusader took the waves. When 10- and 12-foot seas appeared, he reduced speed and the vessel eased over them.

When we arrived on site, I was on the dive platform with a rope and hook to set in place so that Reef Rescue divers Ed, Terry and Steve Spring could descend along with CBS reporter John Bachman and cameraman Steve Schelb to the outfall pipe.

Starfish Enterprise rode over high waves. Captain Smart looked back from the fly bridge, his face and long hair soaked, sea water draining off the Bimini top. “Whose idea was this anyway?” he called down with a laugh. “There’s a south current. I’m going to put you north of it,” he called to me. The wind carried his voice away.

“Dive it.” I stepped backward off the platform and began the 90-foot descent. There is a nice series of patch reefs in the surrounding area near the pipe. Lots of marine life. A strong 3-knot south current whisked me along the bottom. I used the hook to slow my progress as I got oriented. Visibility was about 30-feet. Not great but good enough to see the huge’smokestack’ with its plume of sewage drifting out, upwards and south with the current.

I hooked into a rock a short way off the pipe. That way the CBS cameramen could video tape the pipe and the Reef Rescue divers without getting the line into their shots. I signaled by pulling on the rope that caused the red buoy attached to it to go under water. That told Divemaster Linda Mustin to put the divers and cameraman in.

On my way back up the divers and CBS news team were on their way down. I got my camera and joined them. There is not much else to take once the typical photo of the sewer pipe spewing effluent, like a smokestack on land, is taken. I left the divers at the pipe to explore the reef. There were many coral “islands” or patch reefs north of the site. I swam and pulled myself against the current to explore them.

I saw no evidence of algal growth on any of the reefs. Many years before I took samples of algae killing coral on reefs north and south of the sewer outfall. I identified the samples as Lyngbia and Geramium. The blue-green algae and reddish Geramium are species that thrive in salt water that is nitrogen enriched.

I reported my findings once they were confirmed by scientist colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. I wrote about the issues and had many underwater photographs published that vividly described the problem. Whole sections of the magnificent reef structure that exists a mile offshore of Palm Beach County’s beaches were dead, suffocated by large mats of algae.

I took one photo of a diver on the Boca Raton reef. She was buried in algae, with only her head and two hands showing, holding handfuls of the stuff. Ocean discharges of sewage were the culprits. That along with other conduits of waste water into the ocean.

While the sewer pipe was put offline at 1:05 pm on April Fool’s Day 2009, it was not dismantled. The alternative is now to deep well inject sewage 3,500 feet underground, and use treated waste water to water golf courses and for irrigation. Water in Florida is a precious commodity.

Dr. Brian LaPointe, a researcher with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Ft. Pierce, found vents in the ocean that contain sewage coming out at 40 psi (the pressure of your car tire). It is also clear that the geological strata in Florida, after the first two inches of topsoil to maintain non-indigenous grass, then after sand, is limestone — old coral rock. All of it is porous.

What goes on top runs off or seeps in. What goes down goes someplace. Aquifers supply drinking water from deep channels under the earth. This is a dilemma that planners have not planned for, or simply know and ignore, to attempt to solve the immediate crisis of putting our waste somewhere.

Wastewater managers and even the Department of Environmental Protection recognize the fact that their underground deep well injection system may not be able to handle wastewater in high doses after hurricanes or in emergency situations if something happens to the system. Then the sewage will be pumped back through the great big pipe back into the ocean.

“We bought the cheapest champagne in the supermarket. After all we’re just going to shake it up and celebrate with it,” Ed Tichenor said, once back onboard the dive boat.

When the last diver surfaced from the video taping, that’s exactly what they did. The little team of happy activists shook the three bottles, popped the corks and enjoyed their victory.

The CBS news reporter asked his cameraman, “Isn’t there a marine biologist here?” I said nothing. Tired of spouting off only to have the facts denied at first, then excused in the face of hard evidence. This was their celebration. It took a coalition of concerned citizen volunteers to force government to obey laws that citizens, through their law makers, had enacted.

Pretty tough scenario when we think about it. People we hire to enforce the law and comply with the laws we consider important to our health and welfare, violated these laws with impunity, putting us at risk and destroying the very resource upon which the economy of Florida depends. I kept my mouth shut for once.

Waves broke over the stern, water came onto the deck, the celebrants drank from the bottles, passed them around, and were happy. “One down, five to go,” Tichenor said.

On shore there were interviews with the news team and hopeful prognostications now that one of the sources of ocean pollution has been curtailed, at least for now.

“There’s a real good chance that the badly affected reefs will recover, and the areas not affected will continue to be healthy. It can’t do anything but improve,” Captain Smart said. He’d volunteered his time and his boat to make the celebration happen. His livelihood depends upon a healthy marine environment. All of South Florida does. The closure of the 40-year old sewer pipe is a small victory, perhaps the first in many that must occur before the health of our offshore reefs is secure.

Author/photgapher John Christopher Fine is a marine biologist and expert in marine and maritime affairs. Dr. Fine has authored 24 books, most about ocean and environmental issues. He holds the highest licenses as a Master Scuba Instructor and Instructor Trainer. Photos ©2009, John Christopher Fine.