It's been nine months since Seminole officials promised to be more transparent with residents about the amount of 1,4-dioxane, a suspected carcinogen, in the county's drinking water.
But in the meantime, they have done little to communicate what routine testing of previously known contaminated drinking water wells has revealed.
It looks like that is finally about to change. County officials told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday that water from one of the five treatment plants still contains significant levels of 1,4-dioxane, but the concentration is below federally recommended levels. They provided several months' worth of data showing that only about half of the safety. Measurements at his four other factories showed negligible contamination in most cases.
County officials also said they will begin posting those test results online, fulfilling a promise first made last July. They acknowledged that questions from the Sentinel spurred their decision.
Why does it stall? Officials said they are working on a plan to incorporate water quality data into an interactive map that they believe will be easier for the public to understand. Seminole Commissioner Lee Constantine said he wishes the data had been posted on the county's website sooner, but supports efforts to create a simple and clear way to communicate information. Stated.
“We're going to get it done,” he said Friday. “But we want to do it right.”
Widespread concern about the presence of 1,4-dioxane in Seminole County's water stems from a Sentinel study, “Toxic Secrets,” published in July 2023. The investigation revealed that tens of thousands of people in northwest Seminole had been drinking water containing 1,4-dioxane for decades, as well as in Lake Mary, Sanford, and unincorporated Seminole counties. In some areas, concentrations were found to have exceeded recommended levels for long periods of time.
The 1,4-dioxane has been linked to a long-shuttered communications plant once operated by Siemens, located between Interstate 4 and Rinehart Road west of Lake Mary. . Contamination from the factory seeped hundreds of feet underground into the Florida Aquifer, the area's source of drinking water.
Officials in the three jurisdictions learned of the 1,4-dioxane contamination through federally mandated testing in 2013, but did not explicitly warn the public. Once the Sentinel series was published, they promised to make it even better.
But change is coming slowly, especially in Seminole County.
Last summer, the county posted a one-sentence statement on its website about the amount of industrial chemicals in drinking water. “In May 2023, internal sampling of all drinking water systems at the point of entry confirmed minimal to no detections” of contaminants. ” This statement has not been updated since then, despite new test results.
The county's website only mentions 1,4-dioxane as a “contaminant of concern” and does not mention it as a possible cancer risk. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is more specific: 1,4-dioxane is more likely to cause liver and kidney cancer and other illnesses.
Nevertheless, the EPA does not regulate 1,4-dioxane, so no notification or cleanup is required. State and federal governments have established a recommended health advisory limit for the presence of chemicals in drinking water at 0.35 ppb. Efforts to create stronger statewide restrictions failed in the state Legislature earlier this year.
Seminole County officials will begin regular testing of drinking water starting in mid-2023 and are currently providing the results to the Sentinel.
Testing showed that the Markham Regional Water Treatment Plant (which receives water from approximately six wells in the northwestern quadrant of the county) distributed water with 1,4-dioxane concentrations ranging from less than 0.04 ppb to 0.187 ppb in September. It turned out that ppb in november.
Four other water treatment plants consistently show levels below 0.04 ppb.
On Friday, county officials defended the county's slow response in releasing the data. The county said it is working with multiple consultants to collect and analyze testing data. They are also meeting with representatives from the cities of Sanford and Lake Mary and the state health department to compile all information.
In the coming weeks, perhaps by mid-May, all the data will be posted on an interactive map on the county's website where the public can click on a spot to learn information about water providers and water sources. The county said it plans to do so. Water and test results for that particular area.
“We've been compiling a lot of information, and now we're at a point where we're OK. We need to put a repository of this information in place and make it available in a meaningful format… that's easy to read. ” said Christian Swenson, assistant county manager. “But if you just clutter and pile a bunch of stuff on your website, it's probably going to make things even more confusing.”
Swenson acknowledged that the county does receive calls about test results not being listed on the county's website.
But, he added, “this is a much bigger topic than just testing.” For example, he noted that groundwater tests at the Siemens facility show 10 times more contamination than tests from county wells. The county and consultants from Sanford and Lake Mary are looking into it.
“That was a little shocking to us,” Swenson said. “So what does that mean in the long run? What is the depth of things? What are our partners seeing? Things like that.”
Constantine said the county is “moving in the right direction” regarding pollution. The City of Seminole also recently hired the Gray Robinson Law Firm, and the county is working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to track down polluters and continue testing wells in northwest Seminole.
“The important thing is that dioxane is below health advisory levels,” Constantine said.
Commissioner Andrea Hell, who represents northwest Seminole and asked the county to provide residents with a dashboard of water test results last July, did not respond to a request for comment. Hell's aides said Friday that any questions would have to go through county officials for “legalities.” But she didn't elaborate.
“The ultimate goal is to have a dynamic map that the public can click to pull data from any source,” Seminole spokesman Chris Patton said Friday.
“You'll be able to see a directory of what's happening near your home instead of testing results at a water treatment plant far away from your home,” he says.