As marinas, parks, and beaches start to open up, we know you’re excited as we are to get back in the water. You might be wondering how clean the water is before you jump back in (of course, respecting social distancing guidelines and local ordinances regarding access!).
We’re here to help inform you so you can make the most educated decision before hopping in to cool off as the hot summer approaches!
We are thrilled to let you know, thanks to extraordinary effort from our staff and partners, we’ve been able to get our weekly water monitoring program back online after the shutdown. After losing access to our lab and most of our testing sites during the shutdown, we have since been able to set up an interim lab space to get back out sampling.
Our team was able to collect our first samples of the shutdown on April 24, 2020. Our weekly routine sampling starts up again this week (May 4, 2020), with the results becoming available after 24 hours. Check out the press coverage of our sampling here: Channel 7 and Channel 10.
As you know, our data is posted on the free app, Swim Guide, every week as soon as it becomes available. You can also find the Florida Department of Health’s Florida Healthy Beaches program data and Surfrider Miami’s data on Swim Guide as well.
Why are some sites still in “Special Status?”
While some sites are still closed to the public, they are shown as “special status” on Swim Guide, which means something other than bacteria levels indicate that swimming is not recommended (i.e. red tide, oil spills, COVID-19, etc.).
Historical pass/fail data from the last year of monitoring is also available on Swim Guide by clicking the pie chart graphic at the bottom of each site’s page.
New Partnership: City of Miami
We are excited to announce, in late February, we received final approval to begin water quality sampling through a partnership with the City of Miami. We are excited to expand our monitoring to more sites within the City of Miami waterfront, including Jose Marti Park, Kennedy Park, Shake-a-Leg Miami, Ransom Everglades, Brickell, and Morningside Park.
This contract was delayed due to the COVID-19 shutdown. In fact, we collected only one set of samples before sites were closed. After a brief delay, we have again resumed this sampling. While all of these sites are not currently accessible, most have nearby locations that are accessible for sampling. We continue to work with the City to implement signage and inform the public of water quality at these sites.
Swim Guide Updates during COVID-19 Transition Period
As parks and beaches begin to open up in Miami Dade County, “special status” warnings will be removed. As of right now, sites that are displaying data on Swim Guide are the following:
- Matheson Hammock Park
- Oleta River State Park
- Cape Florida Park aka Bill Baggs State Park
- Crandon Park North
- Crandon Park South
Most recent MWK water quality site results (tested May 11, 2020) we have obtained are the following, some locations still NOT open to the public:
- Morningside Park – FAIL
- Jose Marti Park – FAIL
- Brickell – PASS
- Shake-A-Leg – PASS
- Matheson Hammock Park – PASS
Public Access to Raw Water Quality Data
Want more details about recent and past results? Check out our full spreadsheet of data HERE to keep up with sampling results. This spreadsheet includes raw data from our historic and current sites under our Water Quality Monitoring program and is updated weekly with the latest data. For more information, please email [email protected].
Originally published at https://www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/our_water_monitoring_program_is_back_online_here_s_how_to_find_the_results