Florida to investigate drinking water issues in Appalachicola

Residents of Apalachicola, a Florida Panhandle town synonymous with the state’s oyster industry, were already worried about the future of water quality due to the prospects of oil drilling along the river.

However, the water crisis arrived earlier than expected.

For the past two weeks, residents have been notified of boiling water as water coming out of the sink is not safe to drink or bathe.

But residents say the problem has been around for much longer. It all comes from Hurricane Helen, which damaged a hydrogen scrubber in its water treatment system last September.

The exchange is not expected to arrive until the second half of this summer.

State Attorney General James Usmieyer announced an investigation into the prolonged water issue on Thursday. He said prosecutors will be joined by Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Health and Environmental Protection, and city leaders will investigate how water system repairs are handled.

“There is a real failure in leadership at the urban level,” Uthmeier said in a video posted to X.

The city was notified of the investigation Thursday, Appalachicola Mayor Michael Brillhart told the Tampa Bay Times, adding that he plans to work with Probe.

Brillhart said the city is working to get new parts to improve the smell and quality of the water in Appalachicola.

“We’re making so many progress now as we speak,” Barint said. “We are moving gradually to improve water quality, allowing us to safely reach our customers every day.”

The city continues to flush its system, saying, “We plan to sample additional bacteria starting tomorrow night and Saturday and hope that the city will be able to remove the preventive boiling water notification soon after.

TJ Saunders, captain of Apalachicola’s fishing charter, is tired of waiting. He lost business as tourists cancelled their boat trip, as tourists didn’t want to boil water at the accommodation.

Frustrated with what he called the city’s lack of urgency, he applied to run for a city committee seat on Thursday.

The cause of the water problem is not related to excavation or industrial pollution, but he hopes people understand that they are intertwined.

“It’s really important that the general population of the state understands how vulnerable the system here is and how tied we are to the environment,” Sanders said.

With bipartisan support, Congress passed a bill this spring to ban businesses from searching for oil and gas within 10 miles of the Apalachicola National Estuary Research Reserve. The oil industry has deployed lobbyists to try to shake up the outcome of the bill, records show.

The proposal is currently sitting at Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk, but he didn’t say whether to sign it or not. Sanders hopes that this latest water crisis in Appalachicola is needed.

“We are a coastal community of well water,” he said. “We’re at the point where we’re staring at two different barrels of guns.”

Information from Florida news services is included in this report.

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