September 12, 2006

The Miami Herald

Beach has nasty problem, and nobody knows why:

Unhealthy levels of bacteria have plagued one of Miami's most popular beaches this summer, and authorities can only speculate about the possible source.

By Curtis Morgan

Sep. 12--Not long after Elisabeth Falcone arrived at Crandon Park beach recently, her plans for picnicking and swimming with family visiting from Germany took a bad turn.

It wasn't nasty weather that spoiled the day, but nasty water. Health authorities had ordered the beach closed because of high levels of fecal coliform. The bacteria, associated with human and animal waste, can sicken swimmers.

Closures always rise at South Florida's beaches during the summer, when heavy rain and higher temperatures help brew unhealthy levels of bacteria in the sand and surf. Typically, poor water quality is sporadic, popping up at different beaches and disappearing in a day or two.

But at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, one of Miami-Dade's most popular beaches, the problem has proved persistent. Water has tested clean the last two weeks, but bacteria spikes have forced three separate swimming shutdowns in the last two months -- an unusually high number compared with previous years.

"This has been the worst summer for Crandon since we started sampling," said Michael Rybolowik, the environmental supervisor who oversees beach monitoring for the Miami-Dade County Department of Health.

What triggered the high bacteria counts remains a mystery, said Rybolowik, but the agency's working theory points to an unusual suspect: sea birds. More specifically, Rybolowik thinks the problem could be caused by the droppings of pelicans, cormorants, gulls and other birds that gather on sand bars.

"That's the only thing we can think of right now," Rybolowik said.

SOME BLAMING SEWAGE

Beachgoers, environmentalists and others who swim the warm shallow waters don't buy the explanation that nature could be to blame.

"Just right off the bat, the first thing that comes to mind is obviously you have the sewage treatment plant on Virginia Key," said T.J. Marshall, vice president of the South Florida chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a group focused on coastal access and water quality issues.

The long practice of pumping treated sewage offshore has been coming under growing scrutiny in the last few years -- but more for the impact on marine life and coral reefs.

Researchers have pointed to treated sewage from pipelines off Hollywood and Hillsboro Beach as the possible cause of stunted and weakened corals. In Delray Beach, an environmental group has threatened to sue to block the renewal of a state permit for a sewage plant that members claim has fueled algae smothering a reef.

Miami-Dade public health and environmental regulators and the sewage plant managers insist nothing implicates the plant on Virginia Key, which processes 143 million gallons of sewage a day and pipes it about three miles offshore, where prevailing currents run north.

"Virginia Beach is practically right next door to the sewage treatment plant, and that's one of our cleanest beaches," said Rybolowik. There also have been no similar problems at nearby Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.

Vicente Arrebola, assistant manager of the county's Water and Sewer Department, said he looked into any problems at the plant after the first high readings at Crandon on July 12.

The department found no major breakdowns, but for two hours that day, the plant's chlorination system was running below standard. Still, he said, fecal counts from the pipe were a tiny fraction of what was measured three miles east at Crandon.

Water is considered too tainted to swim in when 400 or more coliform colonies show up in 100 milliliters of water. Tests in July and two separate times in August found counts multiple factors higher, twice reaching levels county beach reports note are "too high to count."

It took four days in July to get a good reading at Crandon.

The beach, like most others, had some high counts in the past, but the real recurring problems were at two beaches along the Rickenbacker Causeway: "Hobie Beach" and "Dog Beach."

But closures have declined sharply since repairs to aging sewage pipes and other improvements, said Ovidio DeLeon, president of Sailboards Miami, which rents boards at Hobie Beach.

"That was all fixed years back," DeLeon said. "I can't see the bacteria, but I know the amount of life we have seen is much higher and we don't get any rashes anymore."

OTHER POSSIBLE CAUSES

There are a number of other potential suspects, the biggest being runoff from the Miami River and urban areas after heavy rains. Public restrooms along the Rickenbacker, which once used a septic system, also have been blamed in the past.

But Susan Markley, natural resources director for the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management, said a serious contamination threat, such as a sewage plant failure, would have wider impacts.

"You wouldn't expect to see it pop up at the one sampling station in Crandon," she said.

Markley said Crandon's broad shallows, which make it a popular spot for waders and families with small children, could contribute. Shallow water gets hotter and there is little current or wave action, making it a good place for bacteria to accumulate.

Markley wouldn't say if she subscribed to the bird-poop theory, but agreed the source could be close by. A beach crowded with people could even be the cause.

Helena Solo-Gabriele, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Miami who studied bacteria levels at Crandon in 2002 and is continuing to monitor Hobie Beach, also points to climate.

Her studies, she said, found that heat and humidity tend to fuel bacteria buried in soil and sediment, then released by waves.

"The microbes just tend to persist longer and multiply faster," she said. "Because we're seeing fecal indicators, it doesn't necessarily mean we have sewage."

Regulators hope whatever is plaguing Crandon will disappear as temperatures cool.

Falcone, who lives in Sunrise but said her family has enjoyed Crandon for 40 years, urged regulators for the county, which owns and runs the park, to do more.

In a letter she sent last month, she described her disgust and urged booming Miami to upgrade aging sewage treatment plants.

She called it "unconscionable" that no signs specifically warn of health risks. State law calls for lifeguards to post red hazard flags closing the beach to swimmers, but she said she had to ask lifeguards the reason.

While the Crandon closures only lasted six days, she warned that her experience left a damaging impression.

"Crime used to keep American and European tourists out of South Florida," said Falcone. "Now it will be our sewage-filled beaches."

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