Hollywood Sewage Outfall: The Crappiest Dive Site in Florida

The Hollywood Sewage Outfall puts a whole different meaning to “sh*tty visibility” while scuba diving.

Diving in…poo?

I never thought I had to add it to my bucket-list…but I did.

Diving in feces: check.

Now, believe me when I say, it was after the fact. I wasn’t seeking to dive with feces. It just…sort of…happened. And I added it to the bucket-list shortly after.

And I mean, how could I not? It’s not every day you dive next to a massive sewage pipe spewing human waste into the ocean. It’s 2021, I thought we were past that?

The Hollywood Sewage Outfall

I’ve heard of these pipes dumping sewage into the ocean, via the Joe Rogan Podcast. He had Louie Psihoyos on to discuss a variety of environmental concerns and the sewage drainage in Broward County was one of them.

It didn’t seem real. After all, I dive this area almost every day and I’ve never seen it. Was it a true story? Were South Florida cities really dumping human waste into the coral reef habitats their economies are so dependent on?

I can tell you first hand, it’s real.

What is a sewage outfall?

An outfall is a fancy way of saying feces disbursement pipe (and technically, urine). It’s where our raw sewage dumps its contents, whether that be at a treatment facility, sewage station, or in this case, the open ocean.

Why is the sewage outfall in Hollywood?

It was actually common practice decades ago along the east coast of Florida. Since then, it’s been slowly phased out after Florida governor, Charlie Crist, signed legislation in 2008 at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale prohibiting the practice by 2025.

However, three governments still use these outfalls to this day: Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Hollywood. Additionally, each have tweaked legislation in their favor to allow 5% of sewage to be spewed through the outfall per year (particularly during times of flooding) – a move they deemed essential to lessen the burden on residents and taxpayers.

Is it actually raw sewage?

Now I don’t want to mislead you, this is NOT raw sewage. According to the city governments, the contents steaming out of the outfall are treated before it’s sent to the ocean.

In fact, one report from the Miami-Herald in 2008 claims if put in a glass, it’d be almost indistinguishable from drinking water (I wouldn’t advise drinking it still).

Does the outfall hurt the environment?

It’s tough to say. The same reports from the Miami-Herald claim the outfalls do little to no damage to the surrounding environment, citing analyses from the EPA.

In the same breath, environmental groups claim the high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus contribute to red tides along Florida’s coast – which have detrimental costs associated with it.

The Cost-Benefit Analysis

As with anything, it has its pros and cons. Redirecting the outfall would surely be a grand expense to the tax payers (an estimated $3 billion). That waste has to go somewhere and developing necessary infrastructure to redirect it comes at a massive price tag.

At the same time, the potential for environmental degradation seems possible. But to be honest, I’d have to dive into the literature regarding the environmental impact more deeply before giving an accurate analysis.

Regardless, all of the pipes must be shut off by 2025 with other infrastructure in place by that time.

My take

However, seeing it for myself, the destruction of coral it took to build the outfall in the first place is evident. Massive channels were carved out, likely by dynamite, killing everything in its path.

As for the immediate surrounding landscape, the coral seems to be dead. All the while, the fish are abundant as can be. I mean, look at all that food coming their way!

Acknowledgements: Shoutout to Project Baseline for some solid reporting and record keeping of the outfalls in Florida.

Diving Near Hollywood Sewage Outfall: the “Stink Hole”

Just in case you wanted to see columns of feces for yourself….

Coordinates: N 26° 01.144′ W 080°05.247′

Drifting the Stink Hole Dive Site

The dive briefing for the day was a visit to the “stink hole” – a new dive site I’d yet to visit. “Okay, interesting name” I thought before taking my giant stride into the water above Fort Lauderdale’s third reef.

Drifting through the spur and groove channels of this reef is worth a visit. The channels wind with encrusted ledges. Reef fish duck inside the nearest crevice as you pass by. And if you’re lucky, a shark or sea turtle may just fleet on by before disappearing into the distant blue.

Enter the corridor

It’s a sight to see that was ruined, on this particular day, by a giant corridor carved into the reef. An unnatural channel that most assuredly was developed from dynamite. This must be the stink hole.

Following the corridor out east into deeper water seemed like the logical choice, I had to know where it lead to.

The corridor was interesting and served as a nice shelter for invasive lionfish. We cleaned a few out before making our way to the end of the tube-like ledge.

The cinder block road

Leveling off, the corridor quickly transformed into a road-like structure of cinder blocks.

It was actually a beautiful spot. The holes in the cinder block were the perfect attachment site for rare coral reef – the findings of a successful artificial reef deployment.

As we gazed at the abundance of marine life heading east, our wonder quickly turned to horror as the pillar of effluence came into view.

Stumbling on the sewage pipe

Imagine a cloud shrouding the sunlight; a plume of smoke from an active fire; or pollutants emitting from a factory smoke stack. That’s what the sewage pipe looked like. Only in the ocean next to endangered coral reef.

We were horrified, but equally curious, as we approached the pipe. The crystal blue water faded to a green and brown hue; the fish fleeting through the effluence were plump and abundant. This place was thriving. I mean look at all that food! These fish will never go hungry.

We snapped some videos of the Goliath grouper enjoying the warmth of the treated excrement – they were certainly eating good too with so much life around them.

Diving Near the Sewage Outfall

Now again, I wouldn’t dive near this thing knowingly. It sort of just happened. The surrounding area would be cool but I would go without approaching the pipe so close next time.

But, if you want to see for yourself it is quite the sight to see. Maybe you can even add it to your bucket-list like I did!