Published August 6, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, Floirda (6 Aug 2004) -- Bacterial pollution from septic tanks, sewers, wildlife and storm drains led to a record number of beach closings and swimmer warnings in Florida and the nation during 2003, a new water quality survey of vacation beaches showed Thursday.
In its 14th annual beach guide, the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council reported a 128 percent increase in Florida beach closings and advisories -- going from 1,745 in 2002 to 3,986 last year -- making it the second-worst state behind California, although Florida has more coastline.
The hardest-hit beaches were in the Florida Keys and along the Panhandle Coast, particularly off Pensacola, Panama City and Fort Walton Beach.
"This is critically important to Florida because of our tourism economy and the quality of life that our 16 million residents expect," said Linda Young, southeast regional director of the Clean Water Network. "We count on our water and beaches to be clean enough for contact recreation like swimming, surfing and diving."
Nationwide, there were more than 18,000 days of closings and advisories at ocean and Great Lakes beaches last year, an increase of 51 percent over 2002.
In South Florida, Monroe County reported 346 days of closings and advisories, followed by Broward County with 200, although most of those problems were detected along the Intracoastal Waterway in areas where swimming is not allowed. Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties reported minimal closures and advisories, 16 and 42, respectively.
Local health officials said most of the state's east coast counties are in good shape, although bacteria levels spike a couple of times a year for reasons they can't explain.
"The Atlantic Ocean flushes very well," said Bob Cummings, water recreation supervisor for the Palm Beach County Health Department. "The coast is nice and straight and there is no dumping of sewage. On the east coast, it's as close to perfect as you're going to get."
The dramatic jump in Florida is largely due to increased monitoring of 307 sites in 34 coastal counties, where the state began testing weekly instead of every two weeks in mid-2002. Above-average rainfall in some areas and stricter fecal coliform standards also required some beach closings or swim warnings.
Russell Schweiss, of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said enterococcus, one of the pollutants being tested for, occurs naturally and is more likely to be a problem in the state's subtropical waters.
"What you are seeing [in the beach closings] is the result of an abundance of caution," he said. "We investigate the source [of pollution], but a lot of times it is the result of a natural event."
The increased testing, however, has revealed bacteria problems that local communities weren't aware of, spurring them to clean up the problem, said Lindsay Hodges of the Florida Department of Health.
When the program revealed high bacteria levels around Key West, the city built a $67 million state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant that has sharply reduced pollution around the island.
"It's clearly a very successful program, and we're excited to see residents using it," Hodges said.
While the Keys have caught bad press for several years over high bacteria counts in the water, a spokesman with the Monroe County Tourist Development Council insisted the bad publicity hasn't hurt tourism.
"The Keys are really not a beach destination like Fort Lauderdale or Fort Myers," said Andy Newman. "When people come to the Keys, it's really about diving and snorkeling on coral reefs and, according to health experts, there's no fecal concentrations near the reefs."
The Broward advisories were dominated by results from test sites on the Intracoastal Waterway, not beaches, said Howard Rosen, environmental administrator for the Broward County office of the state Health Department. These sites include George English Park in Fort Lauderdale and North Beach and Van Buren Street in Hollywood.
Three Broward beaches experienced five or more days of advisories, including beaches at Commercial Boulevard, the Pompano Beach Pier and Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. Rosen said the Pompano Beach pier problem is likely the result of droppings from a pigeon colony that has caused high bacteria levels for several years. The others could be the result of heavy rains washing animal droppings and other contaminants into the water.
This year the county replaced three testing sites on the Intracoastal with sites on the beach to better reflect where people actually swim, so Rosen said he expects next year's numbers to be much lower. In general, he said there's little reason to worry about swimming at the beaches of Broward County.
"Broward has good beaches," he said.
Still, Young voiced concern about the source of the water contamination.
"The next step is to find out what caused all this bacteria and what can we do to correct it?" she said. "These beaches are important to the state."