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Communications Office

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561-671-4014

Palm Beach County, Fla. - The Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County Healthy Beaches program has issued a health advisory for Phil Foster Park after a recent sampling showed bacterial levels to be more than 71 colonies per milliliter of marine water putting it in the poor range.

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.

DOH-Palm Beach samples beach water for 15 sites 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 palmbeach.floridahealth.gov and then clicking on “Beach Water Sampling”.

 *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: 10/30/2023

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 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.