Florida lawmaker asks agencies to shed light on Seminole’s water contamination

Veteran state lawmaker Linda Stewart has asked for Florida’s environmental agency and the legislature’s research arm to assemble an overview of the state’s awareness, investigation and transparency for extensive chemical contamination of the Floridan Aquifer in a large portion of Seminole County.

Stewart, a Democrat representing east Orange County, is a member of Senate committees relevant to the safety of drinking water supplies: appropriations for agriculture, environment and general government; and the environment and natural resources committee.

On Thursday, Stewart asked Kathleen Passidomo, the Senate president, to commission a study by the Office of Program Policy and Analysis to determine “what steps, if any, the State of Florida should take to make sure we preserve the integrity of our drinking water supplies.”

Watch the Orlando Sentinel forum on Seminole County water

The Office of Program Policy and Analysis is the state legislature’s investigator for “data, evaluation research, and objective analyses” used in budget and policy deliberations.

“Having an independent review by the state would be very helpful as there currently are no state or federal requirements for notification of 1,4 Dioxane in drinking water,” Stewart wrote.

Stewart cited the Orlando Sentinel’s recent series “Toxic Secret” that examined the extensive presence of an industrial chemical 1,4-dioxane in the underground Floridan Aquifer in an area where some of Lake Mary, Sanford and Seminole County wells withdraw drinking water.

Tens of thousands of residents have been exposed to varying levels of the chemical, which, while thinly researched, is categorized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as likely to cause cancer.

In Florida, there are no drinking water rules for 1,4-dioxane. State and federal guidelines recommend that drinking water contains no more than 0.35 parts per billion of the chemical.

Hazardous ground and water pollution containing 1,4-dioxane has been documented at a former telephone systems circuit board factory operating from 1968 to 2003 in Lake Mary just east of Interstate 4.

Previous owners of the factory, including Siemens and General Dynamics, have denied liability for the pollution’s impacts to water supplies but are underwriting an effort to clean up the factory site and have financed a high-end water treatment plant for the city of Lake Mary.

1,4-dioxane typically was in use at factories like the one in Lake Mary by the 1970s. The chemical was not tested for in Lake Mary, Sanford and northwest Seminole County drinking water until it was discovered in 2013 through 2015.

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No one can say when 1,4-dioxane first contaminated drinking water or at what concentration. When first found, concentrations were nearly two to four times as much as the guideline limit.

Since then, Sanford and Seminole County have reduced concentrations to about half of the guideline limit, while Lake Mary started up its treatment plant designed for 1,4-dioxane in 2021.

Until the Sentinel’s Toxic Series reports were published last month, there was essentially no public awareness of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water.

Because there are no rules for the chemical in drinking water, utilities, at least technically, are not required to remove it or to notify customers of its presence.

“Having an independent review by the state would be very helpful as there currently are no state or federal requirements for notification of 1,4 Dioxane in drinking water,” Stewart said.

Her request to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, also on Thursday, was a wide-ranging query on investigation progress and transparency.

Stewart asked for a timeline of the department’s actions to investigate contamination and for details on what the state has done to keep Seminole County residents informed.

“What has DEP done to remove 1,4 dioxane from contaminated groundwater sources?” Stewart asked.