At his press conference this morning, Mayor D.C. Reeves announced that the Department of Health has discovered a high bacteria count in the run-off from a stormwater outlet near Bruce Beach. The city is working ECUA and DEP to find the source of the human fecal matter in the stormwater system.
“We’ve discovered a spike in bacteria levels at Bruce Beach,” Mayor Reeves announced, but he stressed that the bacteria is a new issue, not “a constant recurring issue.” “We got additional testing, and that there’s human bacteria levels that are higher than they’re supposed to be.”
He continued, “Then we went another step further and in mid-September, I believe the 18th and the 23rd, we went and tested at the stormwater inlet (next to Baskerville Donovan’s office)…and the spikes were actually higher there. I called Bruce Wood at ECUA this morning and discussed that with him. We’ve prioritized getting our team together with DEP and ECUA to figure out the source.”
Mayor Reeves canceled the grand opening for the Phase 2 of Bruce Beach, which was scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12.
“If our team doesn’t already have meetings with all of those agencies for today, it will be happening as soon as possible,” he said. “I’m also going to delay the opening of Phase 2 for Bruce Beach because we don’t open new things around here until we get things figured out and fixed.”
The mayor stated the rest of Bruce Beach will remain open to the public. “There’s absolutely no health concern or issue for anything on land. Phase 1 will remain open at this point. There has been swim notices out there, I believe, since September 9th because of the testing. So there’s no real new action that’s going to take place out there.”
Dig Deeper: The City of Pensacola had a similar issue in 2022 before Reeves took office.
Downtown’s sewage infrastructure is some of the city’s oldest, with terra cotta pipes dating back to the late 1800s. As such, the area was among the first that ECUA addressed under the consent order. ECUA essentially replaced the terra cotta pipes via a method called cast-in-place, which overlays a continuous pipeline along the old infrastructure.
Since 2012, ECUA has spent about $76 million on infrastructure rehab. About $25 million of that amount has been spent in the downtown area, which constitutes a stormwater basin that drains to Bruce Beach and an area east of Maritime Park.
The issue was discovered to be the piping on Garden Street. Mayor Reeves said today, “To be clear, the inlet in question right now is not connected at the same location.”
Official Announcement:
POSTPONED: October Bruce Beach Grand Opening
The Bruce Beach Grand Opening scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12 has been postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date.
The postponement follows Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves’ Tuesday, Oct. 1 press conference announcement informing the public of high bacteria levels found in the water at Bruce Beach. The City of Pensacola is working with the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority to track the source of the bacteria. In the meantime, the opening of Bruce Beach’s Phase 2 will be delayed to focus city resources on resolving the water-bacteria issue.
City staff has confirmed that the bacteria is exclusive to the water and does not impact the use of the park or playground equipment. Phase 1 of Bruce Beach will remain open. However, the Florida Department of Health has posted a “No Swim” advisory, and the public is advised to stay out of the water.
For more information about the Bruce Beach Revitalization Project, visit the City of Pensacola website.
