In Miami-Dade, leaky, smelly septic tanks are on their way out, a victory against sea level rise | Editorial

Miami Dade’s 120,000 septic tanks, some of them leaking and polluting Biscayne Bay, are about to be slowly deactivated and connected to the public sewer system - largely thanks to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s leadership.

She recognized that it was about time to wipe out these leaky, smelly contraptions that for years have been damaging our beautiful bay and killing seagrass, mnatees main source of food, with their unsanitary runoff.

“We have been talking and talking about this project, and today we’re finally moving forward,” Levine Cava said Thursday at a groundbreaking for the $4 billion multi-year project, dubbed Connect 2 Protect.

She’s right. The septic tanks have become a liability in our fight against climate change. As sea levels rise, the septic tanks have been overwhelmed by excess water that affects their drainage.

The tanks have become polluting time bombs in the race against sea level rise.

We salute Mayor Levine Cava for getting this project, as they say, off the ground.

It’s about time the county seriously addressed this climate change weakness in our ecosystem. However, homeowners will have to pay their share for the septic-to-sewer connection.

The homes still using septic tanks flush their toilets and shower water into underground concrete boxes outside their homes across Miami-Dade that filter that wastewater down into the dirt and aquifer below.

Leaks have already occurred under elevated groundwater conditions and have caused bay spillage and fish kills, or in the worst cases, overflow into yards and homes.

That must stop.

These septic tanks should have been connected to our existing public sewer system long ago, but past administrations have kicked the project down the road due to the costs for homeowners and the county.

Tip of the hat to Levine Cava for recognizing the severity of the problem and have the conviction and courage to finally fix it. Local environmentalists should be pleased, so should be every Dade Countian.

According to Levine Cava, “moving forward” means the county will begin the icky and smelly process of helping hook up the 120,000 septics. Many of them are in older neighborhoods like Miami Shores, Hialeah, Little Haiti and Liberty City.

Up first is the neighborhood around Little River, where some of the most vulnerable 9,000 tanks have been identified.

Back in 2018, a county report rang the alarm about the overflooding septic tanks. But then the pandemic hit. Levine Cava’s interest in the project, partly funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the federal American Rescue Plan, put it back on course.

Still, there will be considerable costs to homeowners. Ouch, but a necessity.

. The plan calls for the county to install sewer pipes in the neighborhoods right up to residents’ property line. Then it’s up to homeowners to pay to hook up to the sewer lines at the cost of about $10,000 per home. There is a $4 million grant to help low-income homeowners.

But here’s is where we believe the project might hit a snag: If homeowners can’t afford the connection and opt out of hooking up to the public sewer line.

We ask the e county to keep close tabs on the affordability question and offer homeowners financial alternatives. This is the kind of project were the majority has to buy in for it to work.

The idea of septic tanks arrived in the U.S. from France in the 1880s. By the end of WW II, many homes and buildings across the country had septic tanks buried on their property. Back in the day, it was seen as a savings and independence from public utilities to have your own septic tank.

Obviously, the concern that Miami could be overtaken by intruding bay waters due to climate change, turning septic tanks into overflowing, putrid pools, never entered anyone’s mind when digging for those septic tanks.