Last month, after Tropical Storm Debby inundated local septic systems with heavy rain, it’s estimated that over 6.3 million gallons of sewage spewed into Tampa Bay’s local waterways.
As expected, in the following days and weeks, beaches and lakes around the area were issued “no swim” advisories from the Florida Department of Health (DOH), due to either high levels of fecal coliform or Enterococcus bacteria, which is often found in poop.
“The presence of enteric bacteria can be an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from stormwater runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage,” says the DOH. “If they are present in high concentrations in recreational waters and are ingested while swimming or enter the skin through a cut or sore, they may cause human disease, infections or rashes.”
But scenarios like Debby aren’t anything new. Massive sewage overflows occur almost regularly in the Tampa Bay area, and so it wasn’t too surprising when a study from 2022 found that nearly 70% of Florida beaches had potentially unsafe levels of fecal bacteria.
Poop water has many sources, experts say. Florida has millions of private septic tanks that are no longer required to be inspected for leaks thanks to former governor, now Senator, Rick Scott. Runoff from livestock and factory farms is also a major factor. Plus, outdated and deteriorating public sewage and septic systems can be easily overwhelmed during heavy raInfall.
But arguably one of the biggest factors is unregulated sprawl. Last year, a study from the EPA found that nearly half of all beach closures were triggered by runoff. In other words, paving over the things that once absorbed rainfall and filtered pollution (like marshes, forests and wetlands) and replacing them with parking lots, strip malls and McMansions, was probably a poor choice.
And these issues will likely continue. In May of 2023, the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court rolled back the Clean Water Act, drastically limiting the federal government’s ability to protect waterways.
Here in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis recently cut nearly $205 million in funding from the state budget for stormwater, wastewater and sewer projects across the state. He also vetoed a bipartisan bill that would’ve streamlined the process for the DOH to notify the public of unsafe water, and also would’ve given the department the authority to close state beaches.
While the DOH currently monitors some beaches and public swimming areas, it is not required for any state or local jurisdiction to close the beach, or even warn people before taking a dip
The DOH didn’t actually began testing water for the presence of enterococci bacteria until 1998, due to a federal grant. At the time, the program only monitored five coastal communities. But in 2000 the state legislature approved funding to expand the program to 30 communities, and to include testing for fecal coliform.
According to the DOH, the agency now tests local waters weekly. If the bacteria levels are too high (70+ CFU/MPN per 100 mL), an advisory will be issued. “If an enterococci result were observed to exceed 70 colony forming units per 100 milliliters of beach water sampled,” says the DOH, “and a resampling result also exceeds this value, then an ‘Advisory’ would be issued for the sampling site.”
These advisories stay in place until bacteria levels are back to a safe level.
Right now, multiple beaches in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties are under no swim advisories due to, well, shitty water.
To see how often this happens, and to see which beaches are impacted the most, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay combed over nearly 25 years of beach testing data from the DOH, via a public records request.
What you’ll see below are the Tampa Bay beaches that have been issued the most advisories due to the presence of poop.
In all, Tampa Bay beaches have been issued advisories 762 times since the year 2000, and Hillsborough County beaches made up 519 of these. It’s also worth noting that some beaches have only experienced a few advisories, while others have been flagged at least once every two months since testing began.
This data was current as of Sept. 3.
