Delray Beach Agrees To Pay $1M To Florida Department Of Health For Water Violations

City agrees to settle with Florida Department of Health for $1M dollars to settle outstanding penalties for health violations.

DELRAY BEACH, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2021) — City of Delray Beach to pay Florida Dept of Health $1M fine.

The City of Delray Beach has agreed to pay The Florida Department Of Health $1M dollars which is lower than the original $1.8M that the Health Department originally demanded.

The city came to this agreement on November 9th in order to pay for the alleged issues with the city’s water infrastructure.

The order also requires compliance with the Health department’s corrective measures.

The order accuses the City of Delray Beach of the following 9 violations:

1. 1. Failure to implement its cross-connection control program
      1. Failure to conduct inspections of its distribution system to prevent against hazards
      2. Failure to dedicate an employee to conduct and follow up with inspections
      3. Failure to ensure backflow prevention is installed where necessary
      4. Failure to evaluate customers premises for cross-connections
      5. Failure to conduct periodic inspections of customer connections
   2. Failure to issue a timely public notice when it was discovered that there was a cross connection at 120 N Ocean Blvd on June 6th, 2019.
   3. Failure to issue a timely notice to the department of Health when it was discovered that there was a cross connection at 120 N Ocean Blvd on June 6th, 2019.
   4. Failure to provide adequate backflow protection where both drinking and potable water are served. The City of Delray Beach admitted that they have at least 609 customer connections without proper backflow protection.
   5. The City of Delray Beach identified at least 5 physical cross connections between potable and reclaimed water on their system.
   6. Failure to maintain proper documentation including reports, surveys, summaries, etc of the system including: installation records, inspection records, maintenance records, etc
   7. Failure to follow the appropriate color code in order to differentiate between potable and reclaimed water systems.
   8. The City of Delray Beach submitted at least one false statement or representation.
   9. Failure to implement adequate public education.

Most of the violations are around the improper use of cross connections which is important because that can cause cross contamination which can be extremely dangerous to public health.

The order was signed and The City of Delray Beach will have to comply with the terms including:

1. Provide public notice about its failure to implement cross-connection / backflow protection
2. Provide certification of the public notice to the Department of Health
3. Install backflow prevention devices where necessary.
4. Gain compliance with regards to the potable water systems.
5. Provide the Department of Health quarterly progress reports on the status of cross connections.
6. Pay $1,021,193.90 within 30 days of this order

City Manager Terrence Moore says “This opens the door for the next steps in terms of utility operations, infrastructure improvements. Most importantly, an assuredness that a safe environment is available across the board,”.

See a copy of the Consent Order between The City of Delray Beach and The Florida Department Of Health.