Deep injection well request a victory for Cudjoe

Deep injection well request a victory

for Cudjoe Key fisherman, neighbors

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

After a year of activism by some Cudjoe Key neighbors, the deep injection well they’ve pushed for in their neck of the woods may soon become a reality.

That’s after the governing board of the Florida Keys Aqueduct (FKAA) agreed to ask the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to fund the $6 million project, following the FKAA’s decision that “science” had proved there was a need for such an installation, at the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, on Blimp Road.

The forward movement comes after a Florida International University (FIU) study commissioned by the FKAA and BOCC seemed to suggest that one deeper well would be better for the environment than the four 120-foot deep wells which the Aqueduct Authority had originally planned. The proposed deep well would push the treated wastewater 2,000 feet deep, and away from the groundwater table.

The dispute had hinged on whether or not the Blimp Road plant was processing an average of more than a million gallons of treated effluent daily. The aqueduct argued that it wasn’t, while area neighbors took the opposite position. State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) rules require the building of a deep well once the 1 million gallon mark is passed.

Cudjoe Key resident Mike Laudicina had kicked the debate up a notch when he filed state and federal lawsuits pushing for the deeper well.

Despite the aqueduct’s decision, Laudicina isn’t dropping the suits just yet.

“There are a lot of issues outstanding that need to be nailed down, but the major issue will be taken care of if the BOCC actually comes up with the funding,” said Laudicina’s attorney Caron Balkany. “The ball is in their court. I think they want to do the right thing, which would be funding the well, but I don’t understand how this could be properly described as new science. They’ve had had this information for a while. It’s classic hydro-geology, no different from the Saddlebunch Keys, where the same phenomena was proved with injection dye tests more than a decade ago. We’re certainly optimistic.”

District three Commissioner Heather Carruthers said she was pleased to see the project moving forward.

“I’m glad the aqueduct board voted the way it did,” Carruthers said. “Everything I’ve read about this issue made it clear that it was highly likely we were going to need a deep well eventually. Let’s just get it over with.” The funding question will be place on a future meeting agenda, she added.