ANNOUNCER: Now from CBS 4 News,
this is Facing South
Florida with Jim DeFede.
Good morning, I'm
Lauren Pastrana,
and welcome to
Facing South Florida.
Jim DeFede is off this Sunday.
The sight of dozens of
dead fish along the shore
of Biscayne Bay in Miami
is revealing the depths
of the problem in the Bay.
Decisions we make on land
impacting life in the water.
Miami Waterkeeper is a
local nonprofit working
to ensure swimmable, drinkable,
fishable water for all.
I spoke with its general
counsel, Kelly Cox,
about what's happening
in Biscayne Bay
and what can be done to fix it.
Kelly, thank you so much
for spending the time
to talk with us about
this important issue
facing Biscayne Bay tight now.
Obviously the images
of dead fish last month
really caught our attention,
but this problem
goes way further back
than just last month.
How deep is the crisis
that Biscayne Bay is
facing right now?
Biscayne Bay is
experiencing a very
severe crisis right now.
And the fish kill that we
saw a few weeks ago is really
a symptom of a larger disease
that is facing Biscayne Bay.
Biscayne Bay has faced
decades and decades
of land-based sources of
pollution from septic tanks,
sewage leaks, fertilizers,
and stormwater runoff.
In addition to some
legacy pollutants
that have overtime
accumulated in the Bay
and put us past
this tipping point.
So what's the cause of
the fish kill right now,
'cause that's really what
caught everyone's attention.
And we're hearing it's
low levels of oxygen,
but what caused that?
Right, exactly.
So the low levels of dissolved
oxygen in the water column
are what exactly
caused the fish kill,
but low dissolved oxygen
can be caused by a number
of different factors,
primarily algae and
bacteria accumulation.
And how does algae and
bacteria get into our water?
From land-based sources of
pollution like septic tanks
and sewage spills that get
into Biscayne Bay over time
and overload the system.
You mentioned the
issue of septic tanks.
Let's talk about Miami
Dade County and why
there are so many septic tanks.
We pay a water and sewer
bill, many of us each month,
we might be thinking,
is our money going to
improving the infrastructure
of the sewer system
in the County?
Is that, in fact, the case?
So you're exactly right.
A large portion of the County
remains on septic tanks
while the other
portion is on sewer.
We have over a hundred
thousand septic tanks
in Miami Dade County.
12,000 of those septic tanks
immediately abut a sewer line.
So that means that
they're ripe and ready
to be hooked up to sewer.
There've been some issues
historically with capacity
in our sewer system and whether
our sewer system is equipped
to be able to handle additional
load from new customers
and new folks joining
onto the sewer lines.
So it's really been a
problem logistically for us
to pursue this infrastructure.
But we do know that this has
been a problem for pollution
and for the Bay for
many, many decades,
as early as the 1940s,
we have improperly,
are polluting our groundwater
and that groundwater
interfaces with Biscayne Bay.
So it acts as a conduit into
Biscayne Bay and transfers
that septic effluent that's
full of very rich nutrients
and it's getting into the
Bay and impacting the quality
of the water.
Miami Waterkeeper recently
put out a consensus statement
with a lot of other respected
individuals and organizations
discussing the issue facing
Biscayne Bay right now.
What's the main message from
Miami Waterkeeper right now?
The main message from this
consensus statement is
that the scientific community
and the environment community
are all in agreement.
We know what caused
this fish kill event.
And we know the solutions
to solve this problem.
We have to make
investments in our septic
to sewer conversion approach,
into our sewage infrastructure,
into our storm water
system, which again,
transfers pollutants into
the Bay, largely untreated,
and also nutrient inputs
such as fertilizer need
to be addressed.
And the consensus statement
seeks to bring everybody
from academia and the
environmental community together
to push forward a common thread,
a common message in order to
effectuate some change here.
It sounds like a lot of
this is a policy issue
that our local
lawmakers will have
to have a hand in correcting.
Well, what can our
local leaders be doing?
What should they
be doing right now
to improve the
situation in the Bay?
There are a lot of things
that look leaders can be doing
to improve the
situation in the Bay,
not the least of which is
they need to make clean water
a priority on their
legislative agendas.
There are a lot of different
policy recommendations
in particular, the
Biscayne Bay Taskforce
just released this week a series
of concrete recommendations
to improve and
restore Biscayne Bay.
Of those, there are some really
low hanging fruit, right?
I mentioned that we can
hook up abutting sewer,
abutting septic tanks to
sewer lines immediately.
That's 12,000 that
we can take care of.
We can pass fertilizer
ordinances and municipalities
that would call for the ban
on fertilizer application
during the rainy summer months,
when that fertilizer is not
very likely to be up taken
by the grass or the landscape
and instead could run
off into Biscayne Bay
or a nearby canal.
So there are a lot of low
hanging pieces of fruit
that are actionable today.
And we encourage local
local elected officials
and decision makers
to take those actions.
And finally, what action
can we as individuals take
to preserve Biscayne Bay?
Biscayne Bay and the
preservation of Biscayne Bay
is our responsibility
as a community as well.
Everything that we do on land
eventually can impact the Bay.
And so we have to take a sense
of personal
accountability over it.
Just because there isn't a law,
for example, preventing you
from applying fertilizer,
you should be cognizant of what
you're applying to your lawn
and how that might be running
off into Biscayne Bay,
and same thing
with septic tanks.
And you can get involved
with Miami Waterkeeper.
Something that we've
noticed as a result
of this fish kill is
an increased vigilance
by the community to
protect Biscayne Bay.
And we want you to
be able to do that.
We have a great program called
1000 Eyes On The Water.
It's a free online training
program that will teach you how
to document and report
things like algae blooms
and fish kills to
Miami Waterkeeper so
that we can better
coordinate with the
scientific community
and the regulatory
community in order to ensure
a rapid response to
these types of events.
All right, Kelly.
Yeah, if we want to enjoy it,
we have to do our part to
keep it well-preserved.
Thank you so much for taking
the time to talk with us today.
Thank you for having me.
Up next, time is
ticking to register
to vote in the next election
and to request a mail
in ballot if you prefer
to stay away from
the polls in person.
I talk with a voting rights
attorney about the biggest
challenge voters are
facing going into November.