The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) has recently acted to help prevent legislation being introduced in South Florida that would allow for an extension period for the pumping of sewage into the sea. A deadline for the activity to cease has been set for 2025, but Miami lawmakers had introduced a new bill to extend this until 2030. DEMA and other diving groups have opposed this, and this has resulted in a strike-all amendment upholding the original 2025 limit.

Association Fights Extension of Sewage Outfall Deadline.

San Diego, CA – In 2008, Florida lawmakers set a timeline for South Florida to stop pumping 300 million of gallons of sewage a day into the ocean by the year 2025, and to treat most of the region’s wastewater to reuse for other purposes. In recent months several Miami lawmakers introduced a new bill that would delay the 2008 deadline to stop dumping sewage into the ocean until the year 2030.

With DEMA and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) among others in opposition to the new bill, Florida’s Senate Committee on Community Affairs approved a strike-all amendment that maintains the 2025 deadline.

“We are grateful to be involved in the effort to prevent the extension of the sewage outfall on Florida’s reefs,” said Tom Ingram, Executive Director of DEMA. “Our goal in doing so was and is to help keep the water and reefs healthy so divers will continue to have a clean environment in which to dive.”

DEMA’s position was that dumping wastewater into Florida’s oceans has damaged beaches, marine life and coral reef. “We just want to close the pipes as soon as possible and keep them closed, reducing ocean pollution,” Ingram concluded. “The dive industry will continue to support the campaign against contaminating Florida’s water – any water - with sewage.”