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| Fort Lauderdale, Venice of America State Archives of Florida/Hannou |
By Jane Feehan
Fort Lauderdale’s foundation for tourism and key to its commercial
and residential development has been its water. Ocean, canal and Intracoastal
waters all play a role in the city’s positive identity as “Venice of America.”
During the past few years, however, headlines about Fort
Lauderdale’s flooding and sewer issues have thrown a wet blanket on the perils
of over development. Downtown and adjacent neighborhood flooding and a rash of
broken sewer pipes since 2019 threaten the city’s quality-of-life reputation.
Water issues are not new to this seaside city. Clouds started gathering over the quality of Fort
Lauderdale’s drinking water decades ago. In 1982 the Environmental Protection
Agency (created in 1970 to protect human health and the environment) warned
Fort Lauderdale that its drinking water had three times as much of a cancer-causing
agent as federal guidelines allowed.
The cancer-causing agents—trihalomethanes or THMs— are
formed when chlorine used to clean drinking water mixes with decaying vegetative materials
such as leaves in the underground water supply. The federal government recommended
no more than 100 parts per billion of THMs and Fort Lauderdale’s drinking water
contained 350-440 parts per billion. The city was ordered to notify the public
in water bills and in local newspapers for three months that measures were to
be taken to remedy the situation by 1984.
The city spent $2 million on a new filtering system in 1982 or '83. Then
politics seeped through. Mayor Virginia Young said the fed’s warning was a scare
tactic. City consultants said don’t worry, it would take decades and decades of
drinking water with more than 100 parts THMs to get cancer. Cancer chances were
only 1 in 10 million. Environmentalist groups said take heed, it was a real problem.
The American Water Works Association threatened
the EPA with a law suit to compel the agency to adopt lower standards.
The new federal standards were passed into law Nov. 29, 1983;
all municipalities serving more than 10,000 residents must comply.
Water standards and compliance measures were the stuff of headlines
for years. A number of Broward County cities exceeded THM standards, including Lauderdale-by-the-Sea,
Sea Ranch Lakes and Lazy Lake. Other Broward cities were added to the list (one
had more than 550 parts); Fort Lauderdale and Sea Ranch Lakes water sources usually
ranked highest. THMs standards remain controversial to this day but cities, including Fort Lauderdale. are
coping with the standards to provide clean drink water.
Ammonia was added to the water treatment protocol but brings
its own problems. It doesn’t sanitize as well as chlorine and causes stomach
problems. Charcoal filtering has been an option for homeowners, but it isn’t as
effective as chlorine. Chlorine with or without ammonia is still used but today’s
process may be more sophisticated or complex to effectively deliver clean water.
I’m not a scientist, and only a bit familiar with the water treatment process (I have visited and written about a treatment plant), but food for thought: Between late 2019 and early 2021 more than 211 million gallons of raw sewage from broken pipes were released into Fort Lauderdale streets, waterways and its George English Park. Water was periodically tested and deemed safe after sanitizing measures. The city is committed to and is replacing faulty sewer pipes.
And now, a report to ponder: In March 2023, local news reported that health experts claim Broward County leads the state and nation in cases of advanced breast cancer. Nova’s AutoNation Institute of Breast Cancer Research is looking into possible causes, which include genetics, education, nutrition or environment. A two-year study is or will be underway.
Questions research should answer:
- How would Fort Lauderdale's THM levels and/or today's "forever" chemicals known as PFAs, compare to other cities around the state and nation? EWG ranks Florida in the top five or six states with unacceptable THM levels ("Legal does not mean safe") but NY is higher
- What Broward cities are most involved in the tally of cases?
- How does the age demographic factor into increased cancer levels?
The city of Fort Lauderdale produces yearly water quality reports along with illustrations of the water purification process at FortLauderdale.gov
Environmental Working Group or EWG, publishes tap water qualities for Fort Lauderdale at: EWG.org
Let’s hope findings are crystal clear, unclouded by politics
and developers and unrelated to Fort Lauderdale’s past and recent history of high THM levels or the sewage problem.
Other sources:
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 6,
1982
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 20, 1982
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 24, 1982
Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 21, 1982
Sun-Sentinel, March 26, 1994
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 7, 2020
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, March 29, 2021
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, March 21, 2023
EWG
WSVN TV – March 21, 2023
Tags: Fort Lauderdale water quality, Fort Lauderdale utilities, Fort Lauderdale history
