Published August 10, 2004
Recent heavy thunderstorms and periods of steady rains have filled the Manatee, Myakka, Peace and other rivers with storm water. Some of that storm water is polluted with animal waste and seepage from septic systems.
That pollution seldom occurs at levels high enough to pose a hazard, but, when the bacteria level is high, people can become sick. Children, the elderly and people with low resistance to communicable diseases face the greatest risk.
Recent no-swimming advisories posted at local beaches and waterfront parks have drawn needed attention to the issue of polluted runoff. Policy-makers and local, state and federal regulators should do more to protect the public. And the public should demand it.
Most people who fit into one of the high- risk categories aren't likely to play around in a rain-swollen river, but rivers aren't the only places people have to worry about.
Runoff eventually flows into the bays and harbors on the Gulf, carrying bacteria to waters where people wade and swim.
Pollution also flows out pipes used in urban areas to carry storm water. Some of the outfalls are where people swim.
Once a week in 2003, health department workers tested waters at Florida's beaches. As a result of pollution levels deemed a threat to human health, 307 beaches were closed or posted with no-swimming advisories. There were nine postings in Sarasota County, 42 in Charlotte County and 41 in Manatee County.
That was a big jump from 2002, but in 2002 the tests were conducted once every two weeks -- only half as often.
Consequently, in Florida, no-swimming advisories were posted a total of 3,986 days in 2003, about double the number in 2002. And the 18,000 days of postings in the United States constituted a 51 percent jump from 2002, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which just released its annual report on beach pollution.
More testing revealed more pollution.
No surprise there.
Linda Young, of the Tallahassee office of Clean Water Network, urges state officials to do more than close beaches and put up warning signs. While that's helpful, as she says, it does nothing to solve the pollution problem other than signify that it exists.
Much more could be done.
For example, communities could fix leaky sewer lines. Septic tanks could be kept far back from rivers and coastal waters. Dog owners could pick up their pets' feces. Sewage sludge could be banned as an agricultural fertilizer.
Anyone who goes to the beach or enjoys Florida's inland and coastal waters should wade waste deep into the pollution issue.