By Rich Pollack
State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman knew something was wrong after she leaped into the Intracoastal Waterway last year to cool off on the Fourth of July.
“It looked like green pea soup,” she said, adding that she washed off as soon as she got back into her boat.
What she didn’t know then was that the water she had jumped into just north of the Boynton Inlet was most likely contaminated by a sewage spill in Boynton Beach.
That incident led Gossett-Seidman to continue her efforts to hasten public notification of waterway spills and beach contamination and to introduce the Safe Waterways Act into the Florida Legislature.
The bill sailed through both the state House and Senate, but it didn’t make it past the veto of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who stopped it from becoming law with no explanation June 26.
Gossett-Seidman, R-Highland Beach, who says she is not sure what the governor’s objection is, plans to continue pushing for changes she says will improve the safety of those swimming and boating in the ocean and other waterways and using the beaches.
“The incident that happened last year isn’t the only incident, it just highlighted what needs to be done,” she said, adding that she hopes to bring a revised bill back next session.
“When I did the research, we found out that it was happening all over the state.”
Standing behind Gossett-Seidman are environmental lobbying groups including the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit that works to preserve and protect the world’s oceans and beaches.
“Everyone should be able to go to the beach and know if it is safe to get in the water or not,” said Emma Haydocy, a former Florida policy manager with Surfrider who now holds a national position with the organization.
Gossett-Seidman said her proposed legislation would have put more teeth into rules governing notifications of contamination in beaches and waterways that now come under the jurisdiction of either the Florida Department of Health or the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, depending on where the contamination is. Beaches fall under the health department’s jurisdiction while inland waterways are the DEP’s jurisdiction.
Gossett-Seidman’s bill, which was co-sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, would have required the Department of Health to issue a health advisory within 24 hours or the next business day “if water quality does not meet certain standards and must require the closure of beach waters and public bathing places if necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare.”
The bill, she said, would also officially give the Department of Health the authority to close beaches, something she says now happens on a local level once a health advisory is issued.
The current language, Gossett-Seidman says, uses the word “allows” instead of requiring the agency to act within 24 hours of a first spill. The process used by state agencies, she says, usually takes more than 24 hours before the public is notified.
The bill would also have included provisions for notifications by municipalities within 24 hours to the Department of Health any time water quality failed to meet state requirements, for notification to local television network affiliates when the department issues a health advisory against swimming, and for notifications for municipalities and private docks and marinas when contamination occurs.
In addition, the legislation would have required the Department of Health to create a standardized sign to be posted and “maintained by municipalities and counties around waters they own and by the Department of Environmental Protection around state waters.”
“There are no strong requirements to post those signs,” Haydocy said. “There is no clarity on when that information has to be posted.”
In an email to The Coastal Star, the Department of Health’s Palm Beach County office said that local beaches are tested weekly and that if fecal bacteria levels are found to violate standards, a second sampling immediately takes place and a water quality advisory is issued. Lifting of the advisory depends on resampling and could take 24 to 72 hours.
Gossett-Seidman said that notifications don’t go out until the second test is conducted and the timing of when the results from that test come in depends on the location of the contamination and proximity to the testing site.
In its email, the Health Department said that it posts signs and issues a water quality news release, but Gossett-Seidman says those notifications need to go out sooner.
The state also has a process for a sewage spill in which a wastewater facility is required to contact the FDOH and FDEP and issue a public health notification. In the event of an emergency, the Health Department works with local authorities and conducts an assessment and testing.
“The procedures sound good but they don’t always work in a smooth manner,” Gossett-Seidman said, adding that it took at least three days before the public was notified of the July 2023 spill in the Intracoastal.
Gossett-Seidman said earlier versions of her bill had other notification provisions that were removed during the legislative process. Those included setting up an emergency phone number to report a spill and putting responsibility for beaches and inland waters under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection.
“It makes sense to have all the clean water concerns in one place,” Haydocy said.
Gossett-Seidman said she would also like to see a joint website from the FDOH and FDEP that would be updated within 24 hours.
“People are driving two to three hours to get to the beach and when they get there they find out they can’t go in the water,” she said.
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