Florida to investigate drinking water problems in Apalachicola

Residents of Apalachicola, a town in the Florida Panhandle synonymous with the state’s oyster industry, had already been fretting about the future of their water quality due to the prospect of oil drilling along the river.

But a water crisis arrived even sooner than they expected.

For about the past two weeks, residents have been under a boil-water notice as the water coming out of their sinks has been unsafe to drink or bathe in.

But residents say the problems have existed much longer. It all stems from Hurricane Helene, which damaged a hydrogen sulfide scrubber in the water treatment system last September.

A replacement isn’t expected to arrive until later this summer.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday announced an investigation into the lingering water problems. He said prosecutors will be joined by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection to investigate city leaders’ handling of water system repairs.

“There’s a real failure of leadership at the city level,” Uthmeier said in a video posted on X. “Not only has the city received millions of dollars to fix their compromised water filtration system, but months and months have gone by with little to no response or activity whatsoever to fix this compromised system.”

The city was informed Thursday of the investigation, Apalachicola City Manager Michael Brillhart told the Tampa Bay Times, adding that it plans to cooperate with the probe.

Brillhart said the city is working to obtain new parts to improve the smell and quality of Apalachicola’s water.

“We’re making much progress right now as we speak,” Brillart said. “We’re moving progressively to improve the water quality so that we can deliver it safely each day to our customers.”

The city is continuing to flush the system and will be doing additional bacteria sampling “beginning tomorrow night and Saturday, with the hopes of soon thereafter, the city being able to remove its precautionary boil-water notice,” Brillhart said.

T.J. Saunders, an Apalachicola fishing charter captain, is tired of waiting. He’s lost business as tourists have canceled their boat trips because they don’t want to boil water at their lodging.

Frustrated with what he called the city’s lack of urgency, he filed to run for a City Commission seat on Thursday.

Although the cause of the water issue isn’t related to drilling or industrial pollution, he wants people to understand that they’re intertwined.

“It’s really important the general population of the state understands just how fragile the system here is and how tied we are to the environment,” Saunders said.

Related: Protesters gather outside Florida agency to fight oil drilling near Apalachicola RiverNina Ozerova, 13, eats an oyster from Apalachicola Bay the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s headquarters in Tallahassee on Dec. 9, 2024. [ LAWRENCE MOWER | Times ]Required reading for Floridians

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With bipartisan support, the Legislature passed a bill this spring to ban companies from searching for oil and gas within 10 miles of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, a roughly 234,000-acre area the government has deemed important for migratory birds like black skimmers, royal terns and brown pelicans. The oil industry deployed lobbyists to try to sway the outcome of the bill, records show.

The proposal is now sitting on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk, but he has not said whether he will sign it. Saunders hopes that this latest water crisis for Apalachicola shows why it’s needed.

“We’re a coastal community on well water,” he said. “We’re at a point where we’re staring down the barrel of two different guns.”

Information from the News Service of Florida is included in this report.

The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida‘s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here.