Posted on Sun, Feb. 08, 2004
FLORIDA KEYS
Study looks at sickness caused by dirty waters around
Keys
By CARA BUCKLEY
cbuckley@herald.com
KEY WEST - The sun danced on the water, beckoning. Drawing a lungful of
sea air, Peter O'Connell marveled at his life. He and his ex-wife had
fallen in love again and remarried.
They capped off their honeymoon circling Key West by jet ski, with
O'Connell plunging into the water while his wife steered. Six-and-a-half
hours later, sun-kissed and giddy, they returned to their hotel and hit
Duval Street's restaurants and bars that night.
O'Connell's head and throat throbbed the next morning.
Hangover, he thought. But he grew sicker as the hours passed. Aches
consumed his joints, fatigue devoured his energy.
By nightfall, back at his Key Largo home, O'Connell was too exhausted to
stand. His temperature hit 103 degrees. Sweat drenched the bed sheets.
Days slipped by. The symptoms stayed.
Local doctors had no answers, even after $10,000 worth of blood tests
and liver and body scans. Six weeks later, battling crippling fatigue,
O'Connell sought the advice of a Miami internist, who immediately
diagnosed him with an enterococcus bacterial infection.
O'Connell had been sickened from feces floating in the sea.
That was in 2001. To date, no one knows how many people get sick after
swimming in contaminated waters around the Keys, but a forthcoming study
aims to shed light.
Spearheaded by Erin Lipp, an environmental microbiologist at the
University of Georgia, the study will use a statistical model and data
about the amount of infectious viruses in the water to calculate how
many people likely get ill.
ASSESSING RISK
''We don't have any idea what the total human effect will be,'' said
Lipp, who won funding for the study from the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary last fall. ``People aren't drinking a whole lot of salt
water, but if you're swimming in it, there's a risk. We just don't
completely understand what the total risk is.''
Contamination from human sewage and storm water runoff has routinely
been detected in near-shore waters and canals around the Keys. A recent
Natural Conservancy study reported human sewage in six out of 10 Keys'
canals, and an earlier study by the University of South Florida found
fecal-borne viruses in 95 percent of surveyed Keys sites.
DANGEROUS VIRUSES
Among the viruses detected were hepatitis A, which causes severe nausea
and vomiting, Norwalk virus, which recently sickened cruise ship
passengers with diarrhea, and strains of enteroviruses that cause
aseptic meningitis, heart aberrations in newborns and paralytic polio.
The viruses were carried to the canals by human waste, and the chief
culprits, scientists say, are the 25,000 septic tanks, 4,000 cesspits
and 250 sewage package plants that service much of the Upper Keys. Many
are antiquated and overburdened, and high groundwater levels and the
Keys' porous bedrock causes waste to leach into nearby waterways.
Once in the water, viruses can live for up to six days, Lipp said, and
readily infect their next victims.
Because the symptoms of sewage-related illnesses include rashes, stomach
upset and fevers, infected people often assume they're merely suffering
from a cold, an allergy or the flu. No central data center collects such
information, and complaints rarely reach the Monroe County Health
Department.
Still, researchers have a thumbnail sketch of the risks that
contaminated Keys waters can pose. In 1999, Lipp and three colleagues
handed out questionnaires to about 350 swimmers in 1999's annual Swim
Around Key West. Thirty-one percent of participants reported at least
one illness after the event, including sore throats, skin rashes, welts,
runny noses,
stomach aches, nausea and diarrhea.
The presence of fecal matter and intestinal-borne viruses in near-shore
waters isn't isolated to the Keys: Researchers found infectious human
waste in other coastal areas of Florida serviced by septic tanks,
including Charlotte Harbor and Sarasota Bay.
CORAL REEFS
But the coral reef bank shouldering the Keys is unique, and fares poorly
when levels of nutrients -- which sewage is rich with -- run high.
Another facet of Lipp's new study will track how human sewage affects
the Keys' offshore reefs, which, beyond supporting marine life, are a
crucial magnet for the million-plus tourists that keep the county's
economy afloat.
Key West began regularly testing water quality around its beaches in
1997, posting warnings and issuing advisories when levels of
enterococcus and fecal coliform were too high.
In 2001, the city completed a $67 million upgrade, ordered by the state,
of its dilapidated sewage system, which was leaking raw sewage into
near-shore shallows.
Several Key West beaches, notably Higgs and Smathers, often register
polluted waters, but officials now attribute the levels to pet, bird and
wild animal feces carried out by storm runoff.
''The level of contamination is thousands of times lower than they were
just four, five years ago,'' said David Fernandez, Key West's utilities
director.
In June 2001, when O'Connell and his wife went jet skiing, relatively
high levels of enterococcus were detected weekly in the waters around
Higgs Beach, and advisories were issued. But the couple entered the
water from a dock, where warnings are not posted.
They also jet-skied past a patch of live-aboard boaters, and O'Connell
remembers wondering where they went to the bathroom.
O'Connell's infection eventually ran its course, but it was six months
before he felt fully restored.
The couple insists they weren't properly informed about the potential
risks of going into the water, and are aghast over the local physicians'
failure to properly diagnose O'Connell.
''I'm lucky I've got a husband,'' said Bonnie Blate, O'Connell's wife.
``He was so sick, I thought he was going to die.''
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