Water Quality

The City of Miami Beach is committed to protecting our waterways, in particular, Biscayne Bay by reducing pollution at its source and improving how stormwater is managed. Over the past 7 years, the City of Miami Beach has made major progress including the following:

• Launching a water quality sampling program with 43 monitoring sites.
• Improving stormwater outfall treatment through pollution control devices.
• Adding dissipator boxes to pumped outfalls to slow discharges.
• Designing new parks and greenspaces, like Bayshore Park, with blue and green infrastructure to filter runoff.
• Upgrading infrastructure, including $122 million approved, in 2020, for the city's water and wastewater system.
• Increasing stormwater maintenance from once every 3 years to once a year.
• Adopting bans on polystyrene, plastic straws, balloons, and plastic and metallic decorations and expanding the MB Plastic Free Program.
• Creating an environmental inspection program to reduce sediment run-off from construction sites to the stormwater system and surface waters.
• Implement a sanitary sewer system evaluation survey.

Fertilizers are products used to help plant grow by adding nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous to lawns and gardens. While helpful on land, these nutrients can be harmful when they wash into Biscayne Bay. Runoff from fertilizer fuels algal blooms, clouds the water, kills seagrass and reduces oxygen levels that fish and other marine life needs to survive. Therefore, in order to protect Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach limits how and when fertilizers can be used from May 15 - November 1.

Learn more about fertilizers: Fertilizers and Biscayne Bay

The City of Miami Beach collects monthly water quality samples within Biscayne Bay and adjacent canals to monitor conditions and protect public health.

The samples are analyzed by labs certified by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) and are analyzed for multiple parameters such as bacteria and nutrients to make informed decisions. NELAP is one of 13 Accredited Bodies in the United States recognized under the Florida Department of Health's Environmental Laboratory Certification Program. To get certified under NELAP, laboratories are required to demonstrate that they can produce high-quality testing results in the interest of protecting the health and environment of Florida's residents and visitors.

1. Sampling for Recreation

Sampling for recreation along our beaches is led by the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) as part of the state-wide Florida Healthy Beaches Program. Every Monday FDOH collects water quality samples in the beaches adjacent to five sampling points: 79th Street, 73rd Street, 53rd Street, 21st Street, South Pointe Drive and one bayside sample at the public boat ramp on 1800 Purdy Avenue. These samples are taken to a NELAP-certified lab where they are tested for enterococcus, a type of fecal indicator bacteria that is used to determine the potential presence of disease-causing organisms in saltwater. If enterococcus levels are present above the State’s recreational water quality standard for beaches of 70 MPN/100mL in a sample, FDOH will issue a water quality advisory for the affected area.

2. Emergency Sampling

In the event of a wastewater spill, the city will issue a "no contact with water advisory" and begin water quality sampling. Sampling points are established around the known discharge point to determine the extent of affected waters and are sampled daily to determine bacteria levels. If enterococcus levels are present above the State’s recreational water quality standard for surface waters of 70 MPN/100mL, the city will retest the affected location daily. The city will lift the advisory once enterococcus levels test below the respective State recreational water quality standard for two consecutive days.

3. Stormwater Management Bay Sampling

The City of Miami Beach collects monthly water quality samples within Biscayne Bay and adjacent canals to monitor conditions and protect public health. These sampling locations were added voluntarily by the City as an extension of the larger Biscayne Bay sampling network, which Miami-Dade County has been monitoring every month for more than 40 years.

Consistent with the County’s methodology, the samples are analyzed for physical (i.e., temperature), chemical (i.e., nutrients) and biological (i.e., enterococcus) parameters at a NELAP-certified lab. The results are provided to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) each year as part of the city’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit Annual Report.

Data collected to monitor the health of our waterways is used to inform the city’s decisions in stormwater management and pollution prevention. This data-driven approach ensures staff time, resources and funding are directed to where they will have the greatest public and environmental benefit. It should be noted that only sampling results processed in labs certified under the NELAP are used to make official decisions, such as issuing advisories or making operation adjustments.

The City of Miami Beach takes precaution to protect our waterways and has developed a multifaceted stormwater management program that goes beyond federal permit requirements:

1. Keeping pollution out- Preventing pollutants from entering the system through public education, daily street sweeping, routine maintenance, and other good housekeeping.
2. Capturing debris- Designing system upgrades, like Vortex structures, that trap sediment and debris before they reach the Bay.
3. Preventing bacteria growth- Cleaning the entire stormwater system once a year and Vortex structures quarterly to reduce conditions where bacteria can grow.
4. Monitoring Water Quality- Running a monthly sampling program to track the health of Biscayne Bay and local waterways, complementing County monitoring.

Ordinance 2021-4435 – Water Quality

This Ordinance aims to safeguard persons, protect property, and prevent damage to the environment, Miami Beach's surface waters, and Biscayne Bay through the regulation of non-stormwater discharges and pollutants into the City's municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4), Biscayne Bay, and surface waters, to the maximum extent practicable.