How clean is the water in Sarasota's beaches?

[d4g4m]

I am getting a good laugh from reading the posts on this thread. If you want to see and smell and be exposed to polluted beaches and water, you first have to swim in the waters around New York City/Long Island the first 40 years of your life. You would then appreciate what we have here.

[bocamom]

I do appreciate what we have here, that's why I am trying to find out what effect human pollution is having on it to protect it. I have lived on or near the beach almost all of my life. I think the waters in Texas and Long Island should be a lesson to us here.

[atroxanautin]

What do you mean, chlorinating the water to prevent red tide? No, I can tell you they don't do that. They chlorinate the water some as part of water treatment though, mainly so stuff doesn't grow in the pipes. Again, no data to support this, its just practically impossible to treat algae blooms like this.

I'm not sure what midnight pass has to do with what you are interested in.

The problems in Sarasota (and most places like us) are runoff and septic tank leeching. The runoff from people's yards, roads, etc is difficult and expensive to treat. Sarasota county has a 'strict' (compared to the rest of Florida) fertilizer/pesticide ordinance. They are now in the process of converting a lot of houses from septic to sewers as well. I'm sure the Mississippi has a part here as well, as it does on the Atlantic side of Florida (maybe not as much though).

I can't imagine them testing sand.

Also, I'm not trying to marginalize your questions/concerns and promote Sarasota to you. I don't care if you move here or not to be honest. I'm sorry we don't have all the data you need.

[OHPANJ]

I know I'm late on this, but you need to contact a local firm or even USF to get some answers. Why are you looking for answers on a local forum?? It also sounds like you need a psychiatric evaluation while you're at it b/c it seems like you're a little bit obsessive when it comes to posting. Sorry to be so blunt.