"Tens of thousands of Volusia County residents flush toilets, take showers and wash clothes every day with little thought about all the waste flowing down the drains and into their septic tanks.

But many of those septic tanks are too old, too close to each other, and too close to groundwater. Most were never designed to remove nitrogen. Statewide, nitrogen and other contaminants flowing into septic systems seep out through Florida’s porous sands and limestone and into groundwater aquifers, polluting springs and waterways.

Out-of-sight septic systems — more than 100,000 of them in Volusia County and an estimated 2.7 million in Florida — add to growing concerns about the rising tide of nitrogen and other pollution feeding algae blooms and killing fish and sea grasses."

Dinah Voyles Pulver reports for the Daytona Beach News-Journal June 1, 2019. [2]