water quality - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T07:25:01Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/water+qualityAlong the Coast: Beaches reopen as new tests show improved water qualityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-beaches-reopen-as-new-tests-show-improved-water-q2024-03-28T19:25:47.000Z2024-03-28T19:25:47.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="margin-top:0px;padding:0px;line-height:1.3em;margin-bottom:1.5em;"><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;padding:0px;line-height:1.3em;margin-bottom:1.5em;">Ocean water testing reported Thursday gave the all clear to seven beaches from from Jupiter to Boca Raton that had been closed to swimmers on Wednesday because of unacceptably high levels of bacteria found in sampling earlier in the week.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;padding:0px;line-height:1.3em;margin-bottom:1.5em;"><span>Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach Municipal Beach and the adjacent Sandoway Park, and Spanish River Park in Boca Raton had been among the beaches closed because of the advisory from the Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County. But, by early Thursday afternoon, they were open again.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;padding:0px;line-height:1.3em;margin-bottom:1.5em;">The Health Department does daily water tests at public beaches to ensure the levels of bacteria associated with stormwater runoff, human sewage and animal waste are at a level no greater than the standard for safe recreation in the water. The samples that found unacceptably high levels were taken during testing on Monday and follow-up water samples were taken on Wednesday.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;padding:0px;line-height:1.3em;margin-bottom:1.5em;">The other beaches that had been closed due to water sampling that showed poor water quality were Carlin Park in Jupiter, Riviera Beach Municipal Beach Park, Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and R.G. Kreusler Park in Lake Worth Beach.</p></div>Lantana: Town cleans pretreatment well after test shows E. coli; drinking water unaffectedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-town-cleans-pretreatment-well-after-test-shows-e-coli-dri2022-03-30T15:01:51.000Z2022-03-30T15:01:51.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>One of Lantana’s 10 water production wells tested positive for fecal coliform (E. coli) bacteria on March 13, according to a public notice.<br />The presence of E. coli bacteria indicates the well may have been contaminated with human or animal waste. <br />After the positive test, the well was taken out of service and isolated, and then was chlorinated and flushed. There are no steps the public has to take because the water is safe, said Eddie Crockett, the town’s director of operations. <br />“The well is a pretreatment water source,” he said. “The water from each well goes to the treatment plant where it is processed and dispensed town-wide.”<br />Crockett said the town tests its distribution system monthly and none of its samples has tested positive for total coliform or fecal coliform.<br /> “We have not had any positive distribution sample for all of 2022,” he said.<br />“There is no way we can tell when we are going to have a positive test for bacteria, but it is not uncommon,” said Crockett. “Residents are notified via the town website and local newspaper.” <br />The Palm Beach County Health Department was informed within 24 hours of the positive test. <br />The water test is not related to yellow water, Crockett said. “That has many causes which must be vetted on an individual basis.”<br />Residents with questions about the quality of their water may call 561-540-5760.</p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><em>— Mary Thurwachter</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Commission calls new water plant a high priorityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-commission-calls-new-water-plant-a-high-priority2021-04-28T17:26:07.000Z2021-04-28T17:26:07.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8862924660,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8862924660,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="666" alt="8862924660?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>The Delray Beach water treatment plant, a few blocks south of downtown, has not received a major upgrade since the early 1990s. The city says it has improved cleaning and other maintenance at the aging plant, and is watching for trouble more closely than ever before. </em><strong>Google Maps image</strong></p>
<p>By Rich Pollack</p>
<p>Faced with persistent concerns from residents about drinking water quality, Delray Beach city commissioners are considering replacing the aging water plant built almost seven decades ago. <br /> During a meeting last month, interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez and Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry outlined the steps that the city will take as it prepares to replace or extensively improve its water treatment plant, built in 1952 when Delray had only 6,500 residents and Harry S. Truman was president. <br /> With the green light from the commission, city staff members will begin assessing current and future needs and costs, a process that could mean it will be six years before a new plant is working — if commissioners continue to support that option.<br /> “All of us on the commission are excited about moving forward,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “We want to bring our water quality to the next level.” <br /> During the presentation to the commission, Alvarez and Hadjimiry pointed out that it has been at least 25 years since the plant received a major upgrade, while also showing that most surrounding communities have already upgraded their water treatment facilities. <br /> “We are definitely overdue,” Petrolia said. “People are wanting to have better water quality here and I think it’s time to take it to the next level.” <br /> Others on the commission shared the mayor’s enthusiasm for moving forward with veteran water systems manager Hadjimiry leading the effort. <br /> “I am sure our residents are most anxious to see this happen,” Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said. <br /> In presenting a case for a new plant, Alvarez said that several maintenance improvements have been made, but even so, much of the equipment in the plant is more than 50 years old and the technology and monitoring systems are outdated. <br /> “We need a new plant in five to 10 years,” Alvarez said.</p>
<p><strong>Type, cost to be determined</strong><br /> What type of plant the city will build and how much it will cost will depend on a number of variables — including the city’s ability to access enough raw water to meet demand. A reverse-osmosis plant, for example, would require more raw water than a plant with more commonly used treatment methods such as membrane filtration, filtered media or a combination of technologies. <br /> Hadjimiry said the city will want to look at the best way to remove contaminants already prohibited by government agencies as well as those that may become more tightly regulated, include PFAs, synthetic chemicals linked to some health issues. <br /> A study would still be needed to include population projections, what water usage demands would be put on a plant in the future and what size plant would meet the city’s needs. The city would also need to develop a timeline for the project. <br /> “We need to determine what is the best type of plant to take us into the next decade,” Petrolia said.<br /> The existing facility has a treatment capacity of about 26 million gallons per day and usage averaging about 14 million gallons per day. <br /> The city’s current population of about 70,000 has added about 10,000 residents in the last 10 years, according to worldpopulationreview.com. Moving forward, Alvarez said, the city will continue with a rate study that could encourage conservation and bring usage down. <br /> The staff will also review a Water Supply and Treatment Feasibility Study done by Kimley-Horn engineering firm in 2019 that recommended the city go to a reverse-osmosis system. That study estimated the cost of building a new plant would be between $132 million and $144 million, but Petrolia believes those numbers might be on the high side. <br /> During their presentation, Hadjimiry and Alvarez displayed a chart that showed plants built by other South Florida communities from 1991 to 2006 with price tags ranging between $40 million and $80 million in estimated 2025 dollars. <br /> The city will also look at funding sources, including potential grants, and will examine the feasibility of creating a public-private partnership as one funding option. <br /> Moving forward with the project, Deputy Vice Mayor Adam Frankel said, is a high priority for Delray Beach. <br /> “It’s one of those things that needs to be put on the top of the list,” he said.</p></div>Along the Coast: Measures needed to improve runoff water qualityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-measures-needed-to-improve-runoff-water-quality2014-10-30T15:22:40.000Z2014-10-30T15:22:40.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> Stormwater runoff from agriculture areas in the west and from lawns in the eastern urban areas continues to plague the southern segment of the Lake Worth Lagoon.<br /> Fewer seagrass plants were found in a 2013 survey, and it looks like the same will hold true for 2014 in the southern part of that estuary, according to the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management. <br /> The southern segment starts at the Lake Worth Bridge and runs south to the Boynton Inlet.<br /> Between 2007 and 2013, sea grass in the south section slipped 1 percentage point, dropping from 23 percent, or 1,688 acres of seagrass, to 22 percent, or 1,592 acres of seagrass.<br /> “In the past, we’ve done aerial surveys. But the water clarity was so poor in 2013 from the runoff of Tropical Storm Isaac in 2012 that we went to divers,” said Eric Anderson, an environmental analyst with DERM.<br /> The divers survey costs about $130,000, which is comparable to the aerial survey, Anderson said. “Divers tell a better story of what is going on because of the poor water clarity and small size of the seagrass plants.”<br /> One variety, called Johnson’s sea grass, is the first marine plant to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is a food source for manatees and sea turtles, acting like a “coastal canary” that indicates the health of the lagoon.<br /> “The seagrass is as an important part of our ecosystem,” said Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue. “The discharges from the ag area and the urban runoff water laced with herbicides and nutrients just degrades the whole environment.” <br /> His group is concerned about the health of the coral reefs along the oceanfront. Because the lagoon water drains into the ocean, its poor quality hurts the reefs. “It won’t get better until there is more filtering of the runoff,” he said. <br /> Stormwater treatment areas are already in place in the western part of the county, Anderson said. One is set up to divert runoff from flowing into the C-51 Canal that drains into the lagoon. It holds 2,078 acre-feet of water that is filtered before flowing south into the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. (An acre-foot of water is the amount of water covering 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot, or 325,900 gallons.) <br /> Water managers are hoping that when the first phase of the C-51 reservoir is done that it can store 16,000 acre-feet of water to help stop more ag runoff from flowing into the lagoon via the C-51 canal. <br />The reservoir sits on land owned by Palm Beach Aggregates, a rock mining company, on Southern Boul-evard, west of Wellington.</p></div>