Miami Beach canal’s poop pollution is off the charts. It’s been that way for years

University of Miami engineering professor Helena Solo-Gabriele spent part of 2022 assessing the persistently foul water that flows in Miami Beach’s Park View Island Canal, site of a once popular and long-closed kayak launch.

Her findings? Well, they only confirmed what residents have complained about for years— the canal has a severe and pervasive poop problem. It’s one Miami Beach leaders are only beginning to fix as the city pours tens of millions into upgrading its aging stormwater and sewage systems.

Ever since a sewage leak in 2020, water quality scientists and environmental advocacy groups have sounded alarm bells around the levels of enterococci, a bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals. In waterways, it’s a tell-tale indicator of pollution and unhealthy levels of human and animal waste.

The Florida Department of Health’s Florida Healthy Beaches Program will issue a no-contact advisory if enterococci levels exceed 70 parts enterococci per 100 milliliters of water. Moderate levels are 36-70 enterococci per 100 milliliters, and a good level is 35 or less.

In periods of rain, Solo-Gabriele saw staggering levels of 20,000, she said. The sediment at the bottom and nearby the canal is far worse off, with levels into hundreds of thousands — concentrations so high that dredging, or removing silt from the bottom may be needed to improve water quality to health levels. Since the city began testing the canal’s waters in 2019, it has routinely surpassed the 70 enteroccoci per 100 milliliter threshold 90% of the time, the report revealed.

The severe pollution closed the Park View Island Kayak Launch in 2020 and leaders have since warned of contact with the water. For residents of Park View Island, a one square mile neighborhood of townhomes and apartments a few blocks west of North Beach, this has meant no longer swimming in front of their canal-front properties at the risk of their health.

Omar Jimenez, a resident who founded the Park View Island Sustainable Association after learning of the water quality issues, said he’s fed up that there hasn’t been a significant change after three years. He said it’s important to keep pressure on elected officials.

“How much time are we going to live knowing that this is going on and not have an assertive plan from the city recognizing this as an emergency situation?” Jimenez said. “It’s complete bulls***.”

Complicated problems

Solo-Gabriele isn’t the only one to analyzing the canal. Of the nearly 500 sites across 12 states that Surfrider, a national environmental organization, tested weekly in 2022, the canal failed the third most tests — an 85% fail rate, according to its annual report.

Fixing the canal is complicated because a number of things can be contributing to the problems — from the city’s aging sewage system to pollution problems in Biscayne Bay.

“Park View Island is a canal within another canal, within Biscayne Bay, and the bay itself is also impaired,” Solo-Gabriele said, adding that the island’s stormwater conveyance system hasn’t been replaced since the 1930s. “It takes a long time to flush out.”

Following an outcry from residents, the city commissioned Solo-Gabriele to take extensive samples of the canal. In March, she presented her findings to the commission along with both short- and long-term recommendations based on a 140-page report.

The report lists several factors play roles, including waste from dogs, feral animals like iguanas and the homeless. And though Solo-Gabriele’s team didn’t find any specific leaks, she was unable to rule out contribution from the city’s aging sewage system.

But repair projects are ongoing. Earlier this year, the city lined and repaired holes in sewage pipes that serve Park View Island in a $300,000 citywide project, Miami Beach engineer Cristina Ortega said.

To address runoff from more development in the east, the city also secured a $10 million grant from the state to update the sewage and stormwater systems between 69th and 73rd streets and from the canal to Collins Avenue, Ortega said. The city finance committee also recommended the city approve $200,000 to initiate design and permitting to update water infrastructure outside of that area.

Dredging, for which initial surveys would cost $500,000, may be on the table, but has not yet made it to a city budget meeting. There’s a $2 million price tag associated with going through with it.

“We have not found the silver bullet,” Ortega said. “It’s just the combination of many factors.”

More warning signs for time being

Along with sewage repairs, the city has taken other steps to protect public health, Chief Resilience Officer Amy Knowles said.

This has included installing more warning signs, signage, more dog poop bag stations, diligent street sweeping and a campaign to stop residents from feeding feral animals, she said. Miami Beach also cleans its storm drains annually.

“We’re not giving up as a city,” Knowles said. “It took a long time to create the problem and it’s going to take a little while. But at least note that we are working hard on it.”

And there are some indications the city’s efforts are working.

Christi LeMahieu, lab director of Surfrider Miami’s Blue Water Task Force that tests the kayak launch weekly, said the site experienced two consecutive weeks of good levels of enterococci in March — a first since Surfrider began their own testing in 2021.

“It’s encouraging,” she said. “The results aren’t as high as they used to be. We’re not seeing week after week of off-the-chart levels.”

Tanya Bhatt, who lived on the island before moving in March and has filed to run for an open city commission seat, wishes there was more of a sense of urgency to address failing and aging sewage systems.

“We are a city that is being developed at a ferocious pace with ancient infrastructure,” Bhatt said. “And it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Updating infrastructure is also on the top of the priority list of Commissioner Steven Meiner, who launched his campaign for Miami Beach mayor last week. If the city doesn’t commit to bold, swift action to update antiquated sewage and stormwater systems, leaks and other issues will continue, he said. And the costs will keep multiplying.

“I think any resident, even if you don’t live right there, should be concerned,” Meiner said. “The expense is going to be there. The earlier we do it, the better off we are.”