BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A concerned community hopes to stop a rocket company’s rocket wastewater from winding up in the Indian River Lagoon. Friday night, the DEP is hosting a meeting for those people who don’t want the state to let Blue Origin release hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater every day.
First, Blue Origin says those discharges will go to a retention pond here at its north Merritt Island campus.
When it rains a lot though and the pond overflows, then it will get into the lagoon.
Residents spoke against the proposal at a December Brevard County commission meeting.
“We’re talking about the future of Brevard County,” Stel Bailey said. “The place we live. The place we love, and the place we invested years of our tax dollars into trying to save the lagoon.”
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Blue Origin said it’s actually been doing this process with its rocket wastewater for five years and is just seeking a renewal of an existing permit.
Marc Lehrich, who your Merritt Island Community Correspondent James Sparvero met camping at NASA’s KARS park on the lagoon, said he’d like to learn more about what’s in that wastewater.
That’s what intrigues Lehrich about going to Friday night’s meeting.
“What are they doing to ensure that they don’t destroy the lagoon and the water and all the animals that live inside it,” he asked.
If you want to get your questions answered too, Friday night’s meeting with the DEP is at the UF/IFAS Extension auditorium in west Cocoa located at 3695 Lake Drive from 4 - 7 p.m.