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Palm Beach County, FL—The Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County has issued a HEALTH ADVISORY for Lake Worth-Kreusler, Ocean Inlet Park, Boynton Beach, Sandoway, Spanish River, and South Inlet Park after recent sampling showed bacterial levels in the water to be more than 71 colonies per milliliter of marine water putting them in the poor range.

Causes of the elevated level that prompted the advisory are unknown but heavy rains, high surf, and heavy traffic can contribute. Generally poor ratings are associated with wildlife, heavy recreational usage, high surf from high winds and high tides or runoff following heavy rains.

DOH-Palm Beach always encourages rinsing with fresh water after swimming in any natural body of water.

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 Sample 4-10-2023

United States 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 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.