This week Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced plans to spend $20 million dollars to address pollution problems in Biscayne Bay.
While it’s a start, Miami Waterkeeper Rachel Silverstein says the costs of restoring the bay will be far higher.
"Just hooking up our one hundred thousand septic tanks to the sewer system is estimated to cost over three billion dollars. And we are already under a federal consent decree to upgrade our sewage infrastructure, which has been so neglected that much of it is 50 to 100 years old." She says seeing the state and county work together is a good sign. "We have a lot of projects that are ready to go that need this funding. And we're really happy that this is a priority of both administrations." Levine Cava unveiled a plan this month to begin converting old septic tanks that are threatened by sea rise. That plan found about 9,000 tanks could already be failing. In just two decades, the number could be over 13,000.
