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The Turkey Point nuclear power plant, which sits between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades, generates enough electricity for 1 million homes and businesses in South Florida. 

The Turkey Point nuclear power plant, which sits between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades, generates enough electricity for 1 million homes and businesses in South Florida. 

Photographer: Alfonso Duran/Bloomberg

Miami’s Drinking Water Is Threatened by a Florida Nuclear Plant

A plume of super-salty water is seeping out of the aging Turkey Point plant and into a critical aquifer. A race is on to contain it.

A few miles from where American crocodiles swim by the hundreds in the cooling canals of the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, engineers are fighting an invisible threat to Miami’s drinking water.

The hulking plant, which provides power to run air conditioners and appliances for 1 million homes and businesses, sits about 25 miles south of Miami, in the middle of paradise. A few feet to its east are the azure waters of Biscayne Bay. The lush islands of the Florida Keys beckon to the south. To the west are the vast and vital Florida Everglades.