David Campbell wrote:
>> While this attitude has changed in much of the world, certain ignorant
>> populations and impoverished nations - some African coastal countries,
>> Haiti, South Florida e.g. - continue to dump in the rivers and oceans
>> and onto the reefs. It's cheap and it's out of sight.
>
>
> A recent legal decision may be forcing Atlanta off this list, but for
> a long time paying fines was recognized as cheaper than wastewater
> processing.

AFAIK, every one of these plants is operating in violation of the
federal Clean Water Act. Although it is a federal law, there is no
federal enforcement mechanism, that was delegated to the states - one of
many unfunded mandates. Most of the states do not even have anyone that
has even heard of the CWA. That's from the top down.

 From the bottom up, the developers and some industrial users do not
want to pay the increased costs of modern sewage treatment, and they own
the local politicians (that's not a rant - in SoFla we jail several
politicians each year and new slime rises to take their place and
bribes). Reef Rescue has found that the citizenry actually does not
object to the extra costs of closing the outfalls, it's the politicians
and their owners.

As you point out, it's much cheaper to delay (with ludicrous "studies"
that question the obvious), to litigate, and to ignore. We've found a
new tactic: state publically that you're going to build a new treatment
facility that will end ocean dumping, then do absolutely nothing except
continue to operate at higher outflow and without a permit.

It's pretty discouraging.

m

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