VALPARAISO — On a recent Monday that was as picture perfect as the day before was miserable and rainy, Steve Jackson was almost certain of what he’d find in the water off Lincoln Park.
It would be enterococci, bacteria found in the feces of warm-blooded animals. There would be lots of it.
“I have a feeling,” Jackson said just before he waded out to fill a tube with water to be tested at a nearby lab. “After all this rain I’m worried about our results this week.”
As a designated water collector for Okaloosa County since 2010, Jackson knows that stormwater runoff from rain like the day before tends to make local areas dangerous for swimming.
For 15 years the county Health Department has been notifying local governments of the nastiness that seeps into swimming areas from storm water runoff.
Nothing significant has changed in 10 years.
The first time records show that water samples were taken at Lincoln Park in Valparaiso was Jan. 27, 2003. Test results found the quality to be poor and the Health Department issued swimming advisories.
Two days after Jackson took his sample April 15, his suspicions were confirmed when the water once again was found to contain enough enterococci to pose a health risk. As had happened a decade before, an advisory was posted to warn visitors against swimming.
The Health Department rates the areas it tests as good, moderate or poor, depending on the amount of enterococci found. Only when the water is rated poor are swimming advisories posted, Health Department spokesman Shaun May said.
The April 15 finding was the 28th time since Jan. 1, 2012, the park known to some people as “stinkin’ Lincoln” received less than a “good” rating from the Health Department. Tests conducted one week later found the water quality moderate.
And Lincoln Park is not the worst.
An agency called the Natural Resources Defense Council compiles an annual Testing the Waters report. In 2011, two local park beaches achieved the dubious honor of ranking among the top five in Florida for “highest percent exceedance rates” of state standards.
Garnier’s Beach Park in Fort Walton Beach was ranked No. 1. It exceeded state standards for fecal material 31 percent of the time, the Defense Council found.
Rocky Bayou at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park near Niceville exceeded limits 19 percent of the time to tie for the third highest in the state.
Lincoln Park’s “exceedance rate” in 2011 was 15 percent.
Since 2011, Garnier’s Beach Park has received less than “good” ratings from the Health Department 38 times. For Rocky Bayou, it was 25 times.
Another local test site, Liza Jackson Park in Fort Walton Beach, has received “poor” or “moderate” ratings 34 times since January 2012.
Local officials know they have problems — the Health Department makes them aware of enterococci hot spots, May said — but have been unable or unwilling to tackle them.
County Public Works Director John Hofstad has been frustrated by the Garnier’s Beach Park situation since 2002, when he worked for Fort Walton Beach.
By 2007, he pretty well had determined the pollutants causing the high enterococci levels were flowing out of Gap Creek, which runs into Cinco Bayou where the beach park is located.
Figuring out the source of the pollution and finding the means — and the money — to stem its flow has proven problematic, however.
This year the county and Fort Walton Beach have joined forces. With funding help from the Northwest Florida Water Management District and BP fine money, they are mounting a major effort to clean up the Gap Creek drainage basin.
“It will help,” Hofstad said. “Certainly, we’re not going to solve it until we can address the entire drainage network, and that will require working with several jurisdictions.”
Among them are the town of Cinco Bayou and the Florida Department of Transportation, Hofstad said.
Fort Walton Beach also has approved a contract with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in which it will receive about $200,000 “to provide engineering design, permit preparation and some construction administration services” for three stormwater projects, according to City Manager Michael Beedie.
All three projects are in the Gap Creek basin, Beedie said in an email.
The retrofit projects include improvements or updates to three stormwater retention areas to provide additional storage and treatment of runoff, Beedie said.
“This will improve the quality of water flowing into both the bayou and bay,” he said.
Fort Walton Beach has also applied for more than $1 million in BP Natural Resource Damage Assessment funds to continue work in the Gap Creek watershed.
Among the requests from the city and county is one for funds to install storm water separators at several saltwater outfall locations. The separators have been proven to prevent a great deal of waste from entering waterways.
The funding application said the goal is to reduce the “enormous concentrations of pollutants (entering) area receiving waters and estuarine habitat during and immediately after rainfall events.”
Okaloosa County has 51 documented storm water outfalls and the Fort Walton Beach has 60, the application said.
In Valparaiso, a study by the Water Management District in 1998 outlined sources of runoff at Lincoln Park and suggested how to improve them.
Joe Morgan, a city commissioner who oversees stormwater issues, said he has learned that some of the Water Management District’s suggestions were heeded over time and others were not.
He said he’s making it a personal goal to revisit stormwater runoff problems at the park.
Niceville has had a stormwater utility in place since 2000 and has “done quite a number of projects” with funds brought in through the utility, according to Public Works Director Bruce Price.
However, the city has not gotten a grip yet on what causes problems at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park. Price surmises it could be development along the waterways.
“I know the Health Department has been talking to our water and sewer people. They get calls to ask if there are any issues,” he said.
He said the city has applied for BP funding to address stormwater runoff.
The projected windfall provided by RESTORE Act funding and other BP fine moneys could help the county and cities finally take big steps to deter pollution.
County Commissioner Dave Parisot said he hopes enough BP money will come to the region to allow for a comprehensive look at the entire Choctawhatchee Bay ecosystem and possibly action to minimize the impacts of runoff.
May with the Health Department said the BP funds might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something substantial. It also will take civic will to clean up local waters, he said.
“It comes down to funding. If the public sees a project worth of devoting itself to, if people are passionate about it, they’ll say ‘let’s see if we can find a solution by working together,’ ” May said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.