Protected Coral Reef from Pollution in Lake Worth, FL

The City of Lake Worth were going to vote on a plan to use a coral reef as city dump for reverse osmosis effluent. The pursuit by the City of Lake Worth to discharge 4 million-gallons-a-day of nutrient-laden wastewater onto a coral reef was derailed by public outcry after FDEP announced plans to issue a permit. At a public meeting in June coral reef experts testified that this plan is a disaster waiting to happen. The FDEP has received more than 1,000 letters objecting to the permit from the public, environmental organizations, Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resource Management and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. As a result FDEP and the City chose to change the permit from ocean discharge to injection and only use the existing outfall pipe in an emergency.