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The Department of Health has a number of programs to help ensure that our water is safe. This includes both drinking water and recreational waters, such as beaches and swimming pools.
We are often involved in investigating water quality problems, with other bureaus in the department, as well as other local, state or federal agencies.
We are responsible for protecting approximately 70% of the population’s drinking water, ranging from large utilities to private wells.
With permission of the well owner, we test wells that may be contaminated and determine their accurate location, so that we can identify other nearby wells that may be at risk of contamination.
The samples are analyzed by the department’s laboratory, and the results are provided to the well owner with an explanation of the results. If the water is determined to be unsafe, the water supply is restored, all at state expense.
We make sure that public swimming pools and bathing places are safe by ensuring that they are properly constructed, operated and maintained. This includes periodic inspection and water quality sampling and analysis.
We monitor the coastal beaches for bacterial indicators at over 300 locations around the state at least once per week throughout the year. When their concentrations are determined to be unsafe, advisories are issued and signs are posted.
The public expects us to be the Guardian of Safe Water. We accept this challenge, and work closely with our agency partners and through community education and outreach to achieve this goal.
The Bureau of Water Programs manages several public health protection programs including the healthy beaches program. This program is funded with a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency and recurring general revenue from the state. Each week, County Health Dept staff sample marine beach water for two pollution indicator bacteria.
34 Coastal County Health Depts participate and sample at 307 public beaches, and then post the results to the DOH healthy beaches internet site for the public to have near-real time information on the safety of beach water quality.
Each county on the healthy beaches website shows the beaches selected for sampling, and the weekly results to help the public decide on the best place to recreate . The test results are listed as good, moderate or poor and the breakdown explained on the webpage..
Whenever the bacteria results are deemed unsafe, and a recheck sample confirms their presence, a no-swimming advisory is posted on the web page, and a sign is posted at the beach and the media is alerted by the County Health Dept. About 5% of the samples overall statewide have resulted in advisories, with a wide range of differences.
Another program our Bureau manages is the public pools and freshwater bathing area program. We have statutory authority to conduct plan reviews before construction, issue the construction permits and to conduct routine inspections of these recreational facilities.
With water disinfection, safety aspects and sanitary engineering design in mind, the state rules are promulgated by the Bureau and enforced by the 67 County Health Depts at over 36,000 public pools, spas, water theme parks, spray pads and freshwater bathing areas in Florida. There are 13 County Health Depts with professional engineers and 2 Bureau offices to cover all 67 counties.
Regulated bathing areas include sites with facilities that are held out intentionally for swimming in Florida’s lakes, rivers and springs in 42 Florida counties
Some bathing areas are less desirable than others, but are still popular swimming sites.
Florida's Dept of Environmental Protection and the Dept of Health share responsibility for the Florida Safe Drinking Water Act (FSDWA), that is, for water systems serving 25 or more people. The DOH has jurisdiction over all other water systems. Of the 6,800 larger public water systems serving 17 million people in our state, our ten urban engineering County Health Depts regulate the water served to about 55% of the population.
Community public water systems typically involve numerous "layers of protection" to assure safe drinking water is delivered to consumers. Engineering, treatment, professional operation, inspection, and testing assure the water's safety. If serious problems do occur, a public notice is issued and this advisory should be followed by the consumers.
This Limited Use public water system serving a strip mall looks identical to a private well and water system, but the well is more protected from pollution, constructed better, and the water is tested regularly for safety. We recommend private well owners test for bacteria and nitrate every year.
The Bureau has written rules to effectively regulate several types of water systems serving small populations with construction, testing, inspection and permitting requirements. We have about 10,000 Limited Use public water systems serving 200,000 people in Florida.
These are common disease causing organisms, called pathogens, that create waterborne disease outbreaks, and have been estimated to cause 16.4 million illnesses per year in the US at only the community water systems (compared this to 38 million estimated cases of foodborne disease per year).
Ref: Messner, M (USEPA), et al, Journal of Water and Health, Dec, 2006
Disease outbreaks can occur from drinking water as well as in recreational swimming settings. This graph shows the causes of nearly 40 years of drinking water outbreaks tracked by the Centers for Disease Control. Our Bureau’s task is to prevent diseases with rulemaking, by doing investigations and by training County Health Dept staff.
Private water wells serve about 3 million citizens in Florida, and the wells are subject to contamination from multiple sources as seen here. Our Bureau coordinates a well testing program between our County Health Depts., the Dept. of Environmental Protection, and our laboratories to find man made chemicals in well water. Some contaminated areas are delineated by a DEP rule, and these areas require new wells to be better constructed and tested.
Three of the 5 Water Management Districts in Florida have given water well permitting authority to 22 of the County Health Depts. Our Bureau meets regularly with the Water Management Districts and Dept of Environmental Protection to assure a smooth application of public health rules to well water use.
During disaster situations, the Bureau provides need-to-know info to the public, to the media, to water systems, and the other agencies that are involved.
To assure that food facilities regulated by the three state food inspection agencies respond appropriately whenever boil water notices are issued, a guidance document was created and widely circulated. This document is available on the website.
90% of Florida’s drinking water comes from ground water. Over 2 million of our citizens get their drinking water from private wells. Everyone wants to know that their well water is safe to drink.
The Well Surveillance Program coordinates the sampling of approximately 14,000 drinking water wells in Florida each year for analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other toxic chemicals including metals and pesticides.
The Well Surveillance Program identifies leaking underground storage tank sites, hazardous waste sites and known contaminated dry cleaner sites in Florida. The Drinking Water Toxics, SUPER Act, and Drycleaning Solvent programs are funded by taxes and legislative appropriation to monitor drinking water quality in potable wells located near these risk sources. The Well Surveillance Program sampling of potable wells is the last defense to detecting fugitive contamination before reaching the homeowners.
Compounds such as benzene found in gasoline constituents are known carcinogens and can move very quickly through an aquifer from a source such as an underground tank.
A typical well survey request consists of the Department of Environmental Protection requesting a well survey around potential release source. The CHD investigator identifies the facility in the field and all potable wells within a 1/4-mile radius of the facility. All public supply wells (>100,000 gallons per day permitted capacity) are identified within a 1/2-mile radius of the facility. Facilities and wells are located with real-time Differentially Corrected Global Positioning System (DGPS). All wells are labeled with a Florida Unique Well Identification (FLUWID) tag. Water samples are analyzed at the DOH laboratory in Jacksonville.
The headquarters in Tallahassee has developed a tracking system to identify contaminated wells and to assist in quality control checks of the data. The system uses ArcGIS? generated map to display both locational information and analytical results. The system can use spatial analysis tools and geological information (available on the internet) to provide additional information.
The Well Surveillance Program provides two basic functions: well surveys for DEP prioritization of sites and resampling of potentially contaminated wells.
A typical well survey request consists of the Department of Environmental Protection requesting a well survey around potential release source. The CHD investigator identifies the facility in the field and all potable wells within a 1/4-mile radius of the facility. All public supply wells (>100,000 gallons per day permitted capacity) are identified within a 1/2-mile radius of the facility. Facilities and wells are located with real-time Differentially Corrected Global Positioning System (DGPS). All wells are labeled with a Florida Unique Well Identification (FLUWID) tag. Water samples are analyzed at the DOH laboratory in Jacksonville.
The headquarters in Tallahassee has developed a tracking system to identify contaminated wells and to assist in quality control checks of the data. The system uses ArcGIS? generated map to display both locational information and analytical results. The system can use spatial analysis tools and geological information (available on the internet) to provide additional information.
The Well Surveillance Program provides two basic functions: well surveys for DEP prioritization of sites and resampling of potentially contaminated wells.
As part of these programs, the county health departments are required to assign Florida Unique Well Identification (FLUWID) Tag and collect GPS points for every well they survey. By collecting these GPS points, we have the ability to accurately map the locations of wells.
Most well surveys are used by DEP as a scoring tool to prioritize State cleanup funding at petroleum facilities. As part of the well survey procedures, a street map is drawn to a scale of 1:12,000, with ¼-mile and ½ mile buffers added to show the distance relationships between contaminated facilities and wells. The DEP uses the final potable well survey map to determine eligible “points” based on the number and type of wells located within the identified buffers. For example, a facility with more than ten potable wells located within ¼ mile earns 30 points. If less than 10 wells are found, the facility earns 20 points. The use of GPS/GIS produces a very accurate and unbiased well survey map.
In many cases, the CATS map can identify area of groundwater contamination and to show changes in concentrations over time. In this example, a plume of the petroleum contaminant MTBE is seen flowing away from the source near a gas station.
When the level of contamination in a potable well exceeds the health advisory level, filter systems are installed at the wellhead which are capable of removing the toxic constituents. These filters are provided free of the homeowner by DEP. These filter systems are frequently monitored for their effectiveness by CHDs and filter cartridges are replaced as necessary.
The ultimate goal of the Well Surveillance Program is to protect our valuable drinking water resources. Florida’s underground aquifer system is highly vulnerable to many sources of surface contamination. Public awareness of these dangers and environmental regulation of risk sources will help to protect these valuable resources. The Well Surveillance Program will continue to ensure adequate protection is being met by frequent monitoring of potable wells in areas with risk for groundwater contamination.
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