TampaPirate

Interesting Email from Siesta Key.

I can not remember the last time my intelligence was so insulted. On September 28th the stench of human sewage floated into my house via open window. I live on the mainland directly across from the Siesta Key. Living by the ocean most of my life, my nose is very able to discern human sewage stink, red tide, seaweed - fresh and rotting, as well as bird excrement. The odor was definitely sewage.

In order to verify this, I went over to the Siesta Beach to observe what I was smelling. Having surfed for several years, I unfortunately, have had experiences of finding myself in human sewage before --in fact the last occurrence was at Public Beach 2004. Thus, I am sad to say, I am familiar with the odor and visuals of rotting seaweed mixed with dead fish and the very distinct stink of human by products. I had my jar ready, but when I viewed how foul the water was, I would not risk my health by paddling out to get a sample.

This leads me to several questions. Why was this not on the front page of the newspaper for everyone to see? Why, when the ban was lifted did that information appear on an inside page and not on the front page? Why, while the beach was still considered unsafe, ONLY the Public Beach had sufficient notice? Any person entering the beaches through the local access was clueless as to the health hazard. I know this, because I personally asked many people the next few morning if they were aware of the hazard posted at Public Beach. No one I spoke to did. Where is the social responsibility of our local government? Will there be an investigation to learn the true source of this sludge?

County employees please do not insult my intelligence by blaming the abundance of seaweed or the retention pond. Perhaps that contributed to the bacterial count, but I know what I saw and I know what I smelled --it was clearly sewage. Which leads to my next question, will the public ever be informed as to where this sewage came from? Based on the currents that Friday, the water was pushing up from the south during this time (as it was in 2004). Is it possible that Venice had an overflow from their sewage treatment plant and it flowed up to us? Has anyone responsible checked this option out?

Pouso speculates that it was red seaweed, mixed with rotting bait fish and then combined with bird poop. Frankly, for the better good of all, I am not happy or satisfied with speculation. We had the same answer in 2004 and then as now the smell and most importantly the visuals do not fit the speculation. I am not alone in this observation as several long time surfers and fisherman agreed that the amount and quality of the water affected was far greater then the retention pond or even run off could have caused. Surfers are accustomed to the look and smell of the retention pond overflow and runoff, this was totally different. It was sewage.

There is talk of spending a great deal of money to "refurbish" the Siesta Key. Well, until you clean up the constant mess of litter and garbage throughout the village and seek solutions to protect our beaches the county is wasting our money. It does not matter how pretty the dress is, if what's underneath is dirty.