Swimming advisories now blamed on seagulls

County commissioners are now considering the possibility that St. George Island’s swimming advisories are not man-made but instead the product of too many seagulls. The commission heard a report Tuesday from Environmental Engineer Newt Colson who said the math just doesn’t work if you blame high bacteria counts in the Gulf of Mexico on Septic Tanks on St. George Island. Colson used groundwater studies done on St. George Island by The University of Florida in the late 1990’s that he feels make a solid scientific argument against man-made bacteria surviving long enough in groundwater to make it into the Gulf, especially in concentration high enough to trigger a swimming advisory from the Florida Department of Health. Colson said he sees a prime culprit flocking over many of the public beaches on St. George Island, and those are seagulls, which carry plenty of bacteria in their waste and tend to go to the bathroom about 4 times an hour. There’s really only one way to prove the theory, though, and that’s for the county to have DNA tests done on water samples to see if the waste is from humans or animals. Those tests are expensive, maybe more than the county can afford at this time, but they are making efforts to get it done. Oyster and Seafood Industry Task Force Director Kevin Begos said he has found a professor in Gainesville who may be willing to provide some DNA testing at a lower cost than many other labs do – the county said it will see what it can work out on that front. At the same time there are plans in the works for much more comprehensive water testing. The health department tests water samples 4 sites on the Gulf of Mexico weekly for bacteria, the county is considering a plan to test 60 sites a week from the bayside, gulfside and groundwater which they feel would give them a much better picture of how water and possible bacteria are moving in and around the island. The costs of doing the tests, which are estimated at 25 dollars a test, may also be out the county’s range at this time, but the Apalachicola Riverkeeper group said it is seeking a major grant of over 330 thousand dollars that would pay 2 engineering firms to do water sampling and DNA testing over a two year period. Of course that depends on the Riverkeeper actually getting the grant, and it doesn’t help the county right now in their efforts to cut the number of swimming advisories issued for St. George Island.