Beach Anyone? Demystifying Water Testing
Annali HaywardNovember 4, 2019
Our reader’s guide is here to help Key Biscayners navigate frequent beach swimming advisories. (Adobe)
Key Biscayne has seen many swim advisories in 2019. If you’re confused by the who, how and when of beach water testing, read our guide:
Who does the testing?
These are the different bodies that test water off Key Biscayne’s beaches:
- The Florida Department of Health
- Miami Waterkeeper
- Surfrider
There is also a University of Miami study looking at bacteria as well as sand and seaweed. It is funded by the Village of Key Biscayne.
The website and app Swim Guide is not a testing body. It gathers test results from beaches worldwide to present information in one place. Historical status is indicated by a faded color. Faded green means that beach has met water quality standards over 95 percent of the time.
How do the tests work?
The DOH’s Miami-Dade County testing is part of its Healthy Beaches program, which has conducted water quality monitoring at 16 sites since August 2002. According to Dr. Samir Elmir, Director of Environmental Health & Engineering Services at the department, sites are selected based on the frequency and intensity of recreational water use.
The tests look for enterococci bacteria that “normally inhabit the intestinal track of humans and animals,” said Elmir. “The prevalence of enteric bacteria is an indicator of fecal pollution, which may come from stormwater run-off, wildlife, pets and human sewage.”
A level of higher than 70 colony-forming units of enterococci per 100ml of water will trigger a DOH advisory – but only after resampling confirms it. These are communicated on the DOH website and Twitter feed, and uploaded to the Swim Guide app.
Miami Waterkeeper Program Director Laura Chaibongsai explained her organization takes samples at 18 inches below the surface in 36 inches of water. As previously reported, the University of Miami study has found bacteria can be held in the sand above the shoreline itself.
What about timing?
Chaibongsai said all three bodies look for the same thing and all of them take 24 hours to incubate. Therefore, next-day results are standard. Waterkeeper and the DOH test on Mondays, meaning the best time to get an accurate read is a Tuesday afternoon.
“Surfrider tests on Thursdays in some of the same areas that DOH tests in order to increase the number of tests per week,” she said.
When asked if two bodies sometimes get different results on the same day, Chaibongsai said yes. “Sometimes the same, sometimes different depending on conditions,” she said.
The other factor is water movement, which Chaibongsai says varies greatly. This raises the possibility that a result could potentially be invalid before its 24-hour incubation window has lapsed.
If a result fails, all bodies will repeat tests daily until results come back clear. The DOH will, in addition to posting results online, issue an advisory if a second day of tests fails. They continue retesting and only lift the advisory when they get two days of clear results (as with the recent sewage spill advisory).
So, is it safe to swim?
Consulting the latest results for a location gives an indication of cleanliness, but if these results are 24 hours old – only available after the standard incubation period – some residents are starting to distrust the information. Compounding this is the fact that the official DOH advisories – in line with state protocol, according to Elmir – are only enacted 48 hours after the first fail.
Benedicte Blanc-Fontenille has lived on the Key for 14 years. She says she used to go swimming every day, often asking the former Key Biscayne Beach Club Manager Mike O’Brien if it was safe. She doesn’t swim every day anymore. “I don’t know who we can trust. It is so sad and frustrating.”
This topic may will arise at the Village of Key Biscayne’s Water Quality Workshop, which takes place Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Village Council Chambers behind the Fire Station. Eight experts, including the lead professor of the University of Miami study, will participate and respond to pre-submitted questions on the water quality issue.
This article has been updated.
Responses
Charles Sherman
Nov 9
By Charles D. Sherman
At a forum organized this week by Key Biscayne’s government to discuss dangerous bacteria levels at the beach, residents voiced concern, disgust and outrage at the toxic water quality now common along the island’s shores.
Before a large panel of scientists, clean water advocates, academics, water engineers and the manager of the Virginia Key sewage treatment plant, residents heard an array of explanations for why recent testing off Key Biscayne beaches had shown the water was unsafe for swimmers.
Week after week this summer, the county has posted advisories warning residents about unsafe levels of bacteria in the water.
“We don’t know why it’s happening,” said Samir Elmir, who runs water quality testing for Dade County. He suggested seaweed build-up was contributing to a bloom in the life-threatening bacteria.
The atmosphere at the meeting was one of mistrust and anger. About 50 residents attended the forum.
Other members of the panel spread the blame, pointing to aging sewer pipes, oil and animal waste in run-off in street drains, too much lawn fertilizer and residents’ otherwise careless disregard for the environment.
Kite board enthusiast Javier Munoz, who said he had lived on the island for 25 years, complained to the panel: “I don’t see anymore sea stars in the water,” an apparent reference to sea urchins, which were once abundant. “Today we see feces on the beach,” he said. “We can smell it.”
Long-time island resident and one-time council member Betty Sim pointed to changes she has seen at the beach on the island. “You have to visualize what we used to see at the beach and what we see now,” she said. “If there are no seabirds, you know that something is sick in the ocean. If there are no fish in the shallow parts of the water, you know that something is sick in the ocean.”
Sim added: “This has been an issue for some time,” and she questioned why it was only being addressed now.
Following the forum, the Village Council in special session Tuesday approved a $750,000 budget item for paying for seaweed burial and removal, while seeking added funds from the state to combat the mounds of what is known as sargassum that have washed on shore. Much of the seaweed is buried under sand at the shoreline.
After the meeting, one woman said: “Who would want their child playing in the sand here?”
Environment scientists assert that artificial nutrients flowing into the Gulf Stream from farms in Brazil and the Mississippi delta are encouraging the growth of seaweed.
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