Wednesday September 30, 2009, 7:16 am
Officials say the well will enable the city to store more reclaimed water and no longer have to discharge the excess -- an estimated 300 million gallons per year -- into the Banana River.

The well is part of $15 million in planned upgrades to the city's 30-year-old Minutemen Causeway sewer plant. It also is the fourth well of its kind proposed in Brevard County in recent years.

Officials insist that the so-called "aquifer storage and recovery" wells are the safest, most affordable way to keep the nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich remnants of sewage from the Indian River Lagoon, where it can trigger excess algae and fish kills. But some environmentalists say pumping that kind of water underground threatens surrounding groundwater with viruses, endocrine disruptors and other trace contaminants that can linger after the sewage treatment process.

Cocoa Beach City Manager Charles Billias said funding for his city's proposed reuse well isn't set and that the city is in the process of borrowing the money from the state.

"It's about four years away," Billias said of the well, which he estimates will cost about $1.5 million.

The three other proposed aquifer storage and recovery wells in Brevard would be shallower than Cocoa Beach's:

# Port Canaveral wants to inject 150 million gallons of treated sewage from 35 to 60 feet underground, making it the shallowest of its kind in Florida.

The well is a joint project between the port, Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. It would go in the grassy area just south of the main parking lot along Glen Cheek Drive, about 800 feet south of Rusty's Seafood and Oyster Bar.

Cocoa Beach is involved with two wells so that it has a backup means of staying within the new nitrogen and phosphorus limits, should one well ever become unavailable.

# Rockledge is testing a 500-foot-deep well at its plant off U.S. 1 just south of Barton Boulevard. The well would store up to 180 million gallons of treated sewage a year in the Floridan Aquifer, the state's main source of drinking water......Visit site for more

Wednesday September 30, 2009, 7:23 am
Thank you Karen.

Wednesday September 30, 2009, 3:49 pm
Thank you Karen. I am very familiar with Cocoa Beach FLA -- real leaders in environmental concerns.

Sunday November 15, 2009, 4:50 pm
instead of heading to the moon and elsewhere, why not spend those dollars on sewage treatment ? untreated sewage is a main reason for our pollution and it should be dealt with properly. could not methane be used for power?? we really need to clean up our acts humanwise in order to try and put this world right.