Dig Deep fights for deeper wells

Residents near a proposed Lower Keys sewer treatment plant have banded together to fight a plan to pump treated sewage water down a shallow injection well, citing concern with the plan's possible environmental impacts.

The group, Dig Deep Cudjoe, has lobbied the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority to dig deeper injection wells at the treatment plant for the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater Treatment System, which is currently under construction on Blimp Road on Cudjoe Key.

Group representatives met with aqueduct authority representatives on Thursday to voice their concerns.

The aqueduct authority is planning to dig four "shallow wells," which would only pump the treated effluent to roughly 120 feet. Dig Deep wants the FKAA to dig "deep injection wells," which would push the water 2,000 feet below the surface.

Shallow injection wells can be constructed at a cost of about $200,000 each, as opposed to roughly $6 million for a deep well, according to aqueduct authority officials.

Dig Deep is concerned the treated effluent will be pumped into porous limestone and will bleed into the groundwater table and into the nearshore waters, impacting fish, crab, lobster and seagrass habitats. The group wants the effluent pumped into deeper "confined geological strata," said Jan Edelstein, a founder of the group.

"It (the treated sewage) is not going to stay there," Edelstein said. "It's going to move around."

Much of Dig Deep's concerns stem from nitrogen and phosphorus making its way to nearshore waters, which can cause harmful algal blooms killing fish, sponges and other marine life.

Dig Deep is concerned about the long-term damage to the nearshore waters, where flats and commercial fishermen make their living. They depend on good water quality and healthy seagrass and other marine life habitat, Edelstein said.

"The treated effluent may be safe enough to play on, but it's not safe enough for marine life to play in," Edelstein said, responding to aqueduct authority claims that the treated wastewater is safe and is already used for yard irrigation.

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Dig Deep fights for deeper wells