Bacteria levels still high throughout Martin & St. Lucie Counties

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla — There’s a new bacteria advisory out for St. Lucie County, specifically for the Westmoreland Canoe Launch and the River Park Marina.

Those two areas were high after the hurricane then went into a safe range and then spiked again, prompting the new advisory.

The advisories put in place after Hurricane Irma, more than a month ago, are still in effect.

Sandsprit Park in Martin County had extremely high bacteria levels after the hurricane. The levels there have gone down some but are still at a dangerous level.

The same goes for the Stuart Sandbar.

“It’s an unhealthy situation,” said Edie Widder, the CEO and Senior Scientist for the Ocean Research and Conservation Assocation (ORCA).

Widder said she’s not surprised the bacteria levels are still high throughout the area.

She said after Hurricane Katrina, it took months for levels in New Orleans months to get back to normal.

“You have sewage systems and septic systems that are all just simply overwhelmed,” said Widder. She continued, “storms like this are natural and our ecosystems can handle it normally.”

She said storm runoff is one issue and the other is muck smothering the bottom of the lagoon that’s been churned up from the storms.

“This stuff is poisoning us and literally poisoning the lagoon,” said Widder. She continued, “we found nine foot depths of muck in some places. That's going back to 1950s when humans started coming in here.”

Dr. Widder said the issue lies within the plumbing and that’s why we’re seeing the bacteria levels fluctuate.

“The plumbing of Florida has been so altered with all of these canal systems, they're opening and closing and gates all the time trying to regulate the water and so we get pulses,” said Widder.

She said now we need to move towards a solution.

“We need to recognize that this is a problem and start trying to design for it,” said Widder.

Until the bacteria levels subside, officials from the health department recommend avoiding the area. They said if you do come in contact with the water, just wash it off.