Contact:

561-671-4014

Communications Office Chd50contactus@flhealth.gov

Palm Beach County, FL—Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County Healthy Beaches Program found all beaches tested satisfactory this week following Monday’s sampling, no advisories posted.

Health department staff samples the beach waters at 13 locations from Boca Raton to Jupiter for enterococci as recommended by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA. The samples are laboratory tested for concentrations and a value assigned to indicate poor, moderate, or good ranges.

Beach water quality for Palm Beach County and throughout the state can be found at http://palmbeach.floridahealth.gov/ and click on “beach water quality”.

*A Poor rating may result in a resampling event to confirm poor conditions; otherwise, a Health Advisory will be issued immediately. These indicate that contact with the water at this site may pose increased risk of infectious disease, particularly for susceptible individuals

Beach Action Values (BAV) Enterococcus Results Description

Date of Resample: 1/5/2023

UnitedStates Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recommended criteria for enterococci is:

Good = 0-35 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water

Moderate = 36-70 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water

Poor = 71 or greater Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water or 36 or greater enterococci per 100ml of marine water as a geometric mean over a five-week period.

An Advisory is issued for a beach that samples in the “Poor” range of the EPA standards. This should be  considered a potential health risk to the bathing public.

If you should have any questions, please contact the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County at (561)837-5988, or visit the Department of Health’s Internet Beach Water Quality website http://palmbeach.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/environmental-health/beach-water-sampling/index.html