Excerpt from article: Beach has nasty problem, and nobody knows why

SOME BLAMING SEWAGE

Beachgoers, environmentalists and others who swim the warm shallow waters don't buy the explanation that nature could be to blame.

''Just right off the bat, the first thing that comes to mind is obviously you have the sewage treatment plant on Virginia Key,'' said T.J. Marshall, vice president of the South Florida chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a group focused on coastal access and water quality issues.

The long practice of pumping treated sewage offshore has been coming under growing scrutiny in the last few years -- but more for the impact on marine life and coral reefs.

Researchers have pointed to treated sewage from pipelines off Hollywood and Hillsboro Beach as the possible cause of stunted and weakened corals. In Delray Beach, an environmental group has threatened to sue to block the renewal of a state permit for a sewage plant that members claim has fueled algae smothering a reef.

Miami-Dade public health and environmental regulators and the sewage plant managers insist nothing implicates the plant on Virginia Key, which processes 143 million gallons of sewage a day and pipes it about three miles offshore, where prevailing currents run north.

''Virginia Beach is practically right next door to the sewage treatment plant, and that's one of our cleanest beaches,'' said Rybolowik. There also have been no similar problems at nearby Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.

Vicente Arrebola, assistant manager of the county's Water and Sewer Department, said he looked into any problems at the plant after the first high readings at Crandon on July 12.

The department found no major breakdowns, but for two hours that day, the plant's chlorination system was running below standard. Still, he said, fecal counts from the pipe were a tiny fraction of what was measured three miles east at Crandon.

Water is considered too tainted to swim in when 400 or more coliform colonies show up in 100 milliliters of water. Tests in July and two separate times in August found counts multiple factors higher, twice reaching levels county beach reports note are ``too high to count.''

It took four days in July to get a good reading at Crandon.

The beach, like most others, had some high counts in the past, but the real recurring problems were at two beaches along the Rickenbacker Causeway: ''Hobie Beach'' and ``Dog Beach.''

But closures have declined sharply since repairs to aging sewage pipes and other improvements, said Ovidio DeLeon, president of Sailboards Miami, which rents boards at Hobie Beach.

''That was all fixed years back,'' DeLeon said. ``I can't see the bacteria, but I know the amount of life we have seen is much higher and we don't get any rashes anymore.''

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