The final report has been released. Pensacola has poo problem one block east of city hall at the corner of Reus and Zaragoza streets. Human waste is in the stormwater and contaminating yards and roadways in the Tanyard neighborhood, eventually flowing into the waters off of Bruce Beach. Resident and environmental activist Dr. Gloria Horning has been begging for help nearly a decade.
“I’ve been fighting this battle for going on seven years now—two city administrations, and then, of course, ECUA.,” Dr. Horning said. “But this just isn’t storm drains. It’s coming across property. It’s on property.”
She continued, “It’s coming from the east, and we know our hotspots, and two of the highest hotspots are on either side of my house. It stinks, Rick, it really stinks.”
Former Mayor Ashton Hayward wasn’t interested in doing anything, simply tell her area has always flooded. Horning said, “ECUA ignored it completely until we got our first report of not only was it enterococcus, it was 98% human. And so it’s not birds, it’s not dogs, it’s not a pig farm somewhere, it’s human waste.”
She believes the problem has existed for decades but city hall had little interest in dealing with it because the majority of the neighborhood was Black. Horning was disappointed to hear ECUA didn’t plan to start testing the neighborhoods to find the pollution’s source until mid-August.
“I’m sure you’ve seen all the pictures that I post almost monthly, of human waste on the street,” she shared. “People walk by my house going to Community Maritime Park, and they’re very kind and I say hello and all that. And they go, ‘What is that smell?”’ And I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t walk in that field over there.’ And I’ve said this before to Robinson’s administration.”
Horning added, “Imagine all these people that are walking down to Community Maritime Park are unaware that they’re walking in possible human waste.”
