{"id":280782,"date":"2026-05-22T13:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280782\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:10:07","slug":"fecal-bacteria-risk-at-south-florida-beach-prompts-health-warning-ahead-of-busy-memorial-day-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280782\/","title":{"rendered":"Fecal bacteria risk at South Florida beach prompts health warning ahead of busy Memorial Day weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s going to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/south-florida-memorial-day-weekend-weather-forecast-miami-fort-lauderdale-miami-dade-broward-may-22-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">hot and humid Memorial Day weekend<\/a> across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/south-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Florida<\/a>, but bacteria indicating the possibility of fecal pollution found at a popular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/miami-dade\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Miami-Dade<\/a> beach prompted a warning from officials to stay out of the water.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridahealth.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida Department of Health<\/a> in Miami-Dade County released a statement and said the water quality at Crandon Park North in Key Biscayne doesn&#8217;t meet the recreational water quality criteria for Enterococcus bacteria, which could indicate fecal pollution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/miamidade.floridahealth.gov\/2026\/05\/22\/doh-miami-dade-issues-water-quality-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">According to the statement<\/a>, the tests were completed on Thursday and the bacteria level exceeded the level that has been established by state guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;DOH-Miami-Dade advises against any water-related activities at this location due to an increased risk of illness in swimmers,&#8221; the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>The advisory will remain in place until the bacterial levels fall below the accepted health level.<\/p>\n<p>What is Enterococcus bacteria?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridahealth.gov\/community-environmental-public-health\/environmental-public-health\/water-quality\/aquatic-toxins\/beach-water-quality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">According to the Florida Department of Health<\/a>, Enterococci are enteric bacteria that normal inhabit the intestinal tract of humans and animals.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of enteric bacteria &#8220;can be an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from stormwater runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition, if they are present in high concentrations in recreational waters and ingested or enter through the skin through a cut or sore, they may cause disease, infections or rashes, according to the department.<\/p>\n<p>Current samples taken at Crandon Park South and Crandon Park North &#8211; Key Biscayne are both poor, meaning 70.5 or greater Enterococcus per 100 milliliters of marine water were discovered in the samples.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the current samples by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridahealth.gov\/community-environmental-public-health\/environmental-public-health\/water-quality\/aquatic-toxins\/beach-water-quality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s going to be a hot and humid Memorial Day weekend across South Florida, but bacteria indicating the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[119690,28,30,29,571,75415,1064,807],"class_list":["post-280782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-e-coli","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-health","tag-memorial-day","tag-miami-dade","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}