Hurricane Irma: Bacteria 'too numerous to count' in Everglades City floodwaters

Bacteria were "too numerous to count" in floodwaters that overcame storm-ravaged Everglades City in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Collier County Pollution Control tests on three samples of receding floodwaters taken Sunday stopped counting fecal coliform, an indicator of human or animal waste, at 10,000 units per 100 milliliters.

"It means it's too numerous to count," pollution control manager Danette Kinaszczuk said. "It's a lot of bacteria."

By comparison, health standards for fishable and swimmable waters in Florida are violated if any single sample tests at 800 units.

The off-the-chart test results also raise concerns about floodwaters contaminating fish and shellfish harvested from around Everglades City, a University of Florida expert said Tuesday.

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"It's really, really, very, very highly contaminated water," said Afsar Ali, a research associate professor in UF's College of Public Health.

The test results released Tuesday put a number to what water quality experts already had assumed: Irma's floodwaters in Everglades City were nasty.

Irma unleashed a 10-foot storm surge that swamped Everglades City with contaminated water and sludge that might have sickened one man who died Saturday. Another man lost a leg, and at least a half-dozen people were sent to a hospital.

A week after Irma hit Sept. 10, a federal medical assistance team arrived in Everglades City this week to respond to the public health crisis unfolding in the small fishing and tourist town.

Besides testing for fecal coliform, pollution control workers also found E. coli, another indicator of human or animal waste, too numerous to count in one sample of floodwaters.

The other two samples contained E. coli at 1,960 units per 100 milliliters and 258 units per 100 milliliters, test results show.

Florida's standards for fishable and swimmable waters allow E. coli at just 410 units, or 130 units for marine waters.

Pollution control workers also took surface water samples from the Barron River and near the historic Rod & Gun Club, but they did not contain as much bacteria per 100 milliliters as the samples from floodwaters.

Tests on surface water samples found fecal coliform at 124, 240 and 513 units; E. coli was found at 54, 3,470 and 538 units.

Tests did not indicate whether the bacteria source was human or animal. That would take DNA tests that the county lab is not certified to conduct, said Kinaszczuk, the pollution control manager.

It was not known Tuesday whether Everglades City's troubled sewage treatment plant contributed to the bacteria problem in Irma's wake.

The city had failed to make dozens of court-ordered repairs to the plant or move forward with rebuilding the plant by deadlines set in a lawsuit settlement with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Separately, the DEP sued the city in 2015 when inspectors caught the plant pumping sewage into nearby mangroves.

The DEP inspected the sewage plant Sept. 14 and found "no substantial damage" as a result of Irma, DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller wrote in an email.

The DEP provided a generator for the plant Sept. 16, and as of Tuesday, power had been restored, but further assessment of the sewage collection system still was ongoing, Miller said.

Everglades City's drinking water plant also was inspected Sept. 14, and the city remains on a notice to boil water.

County pollution control tests showed no bacteria in the water supply at the drinking water plant.

Further tests of the pipes that carry water to homes and businesses are required before the boil notice can be lifted, Miller wrote.