MIAMI — It was a dagger right through the big blue heart of Miami-Dade County.
During a hot week in the beginning of August 2020, parts of Biscayne Bay were littered with thousands of dead fish. Others could still be seen gasping for breath.
Pockets of no oxygen in the northern basin, by Miami’s Morningside neighborhood and by North Bay Village, caused the fish to suffocate. More than 27,000 marine species would not survive.
Biscayne Bay had crossed a threshold, one scientist had been warning about: a dangerous tipping point due to decades of unchecked pollution free-flowing into the watershed — killing acres of seagrass. It was a ticking time bomb.
“And here it was. It was happening. Sort of a worst-case scenario. Overnight, the bay had died,” said Rachel Silverstein, CEO of Miami Waterkeeper.
Five years later, Silverstein says our bay is still on life support.
“There are some areas where we’re seeing moderate improvement, but on the whole, we’re still seeing very poor water quality throughout the bay, and that has us extremely concerned,” she said.
The problem is all those polluted canals that still discharge into Biscayne Bay, especially those in the northern basin, where there’s little to no flow of saltwater to dilute the dirty canal water.
The Little River is ground zero. It’s one of the dirtiest waterways in all of Miami-Dade County and loaded with deadly nutrients from septic breaches, fertilizer runoff, and dirty stormwater.
It’s still a hot spot of pollution — one that the county is racing to correct.
“I’ve never seen here a pocket of bad water concentrated in such a space,” said Piero Gardinali, associate director of FIU’s Institute of Environment.
The institute has been on the front lines since the fish kill of 2020. They now have seven research buoys deployed throughout the bay that send back data in real time like dissolved oxygen and salinity levels.
“If something happens here, the buoy will alert us that something is going wrong,” Gardinali added.
Local 10 News went out with the science team to check up on recovery efforts.
“We are seeing some improvement,” said Kassidy Troxell, a research assistant professor at Florida International University. “We’re seeing some sea grass come back. We’re seeing lower amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. It’s still a lot of work to be done, though.”
It’s a heavy and costly lift. One that the county and the state have already invested millions in.
“As mayor, I made sure that we got a director of water and sewer that was totally dedicated to cleaning up our waterways, moving quickly on the 9,000 susceptible septic systems to sea level rise that, unfortunately, are leaking,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Since the county launched the “Connect 2 Protect” program in 2022, the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department says some 1,000 properties previously on septic tanks have been connected to sewer lines. But there are still over 100,000 septic tanks left to convert in Miami-Dade — a $4 billion investment. it will take years to connect to sewer.
“What I think we need to do with septic is have a real comprehensive strategic plan as to how we’re going to transition the county off of septic,” said Silverstein. “If we don’t set the goal, we’re never going to get the funding and the will to do it.”
Levine Cava said she’s moving forward by successfully drawing state and federal dollars to help.
“We’ve got a loan fund for people to connect to the system once it comes close to their homes,” she said. “We’ve changed the laws about new construction. We can’t just do septic like we did before.”
Silverstein underscores that all who call Miami-Dade home must be engaged. Saving Biscayne Bay will indeed take all of us.
“Staying informed, aware, and showing your love for the bay is critically important. It shows our leaders that people care, that it deserves our investment,” she said.
And while there are more heavy lifts and billion-dollar investments ahead like upgrading our aging stormwater system, there has been a silver lining to this catastrophe: the South Florida community is more engaged. Volunteer Cleanup, says since the fish kill, the organization has seen an uptick in volunteer cleanups from 2 to 3 per week, to now 6 to 10 per week.
Related links
- For information about Miami-Dade’s septic-to-sewer assistance program, visit this page.
- For more information about Volunteer Cleanup, visit this page.
- For information about Miami-Dade’s fertilizer ban from May 15 to Oct. 31, visit this page.
- For more information about the Miami Foundation’s Biscayne Bay Recovery Fund, visit this page.
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