Palm Beach County, FL—Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County has posted a HEALTH ADVISORY for Lantana Beach after recent sampling showed bacterial levels in the water to be at 740 colonies per 100 milliliters of marine water putting it in the POOR range.

Causes of the elevated level that prompted the advisory are unknown but are generally associated with wildlife, heavy recreational usage, high surf and high tides or runoff following heavy rains. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection continues to investigate a possible source given these high levels in subsequent testing weeks. The 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  www.flhealthpalmbeach.org  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; Sample Date 9-19-2016

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