Reported sewage discharges in Florida

What the law requires. Under section 403.077 of the Florida Statutes, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) must post on its website, within 24 hours of receiving it, every notice of a pollution release reportable to the State Watch Office, and e-mail it to subscribers by county; the facility's operator must give DEP that notice within 24 hours of discovering the release. For sewage, DEP's rules make that any sewer overflow of 1,000 gallons or more, or any that may endanger health or the environment. The duty to publish falls on DEP, not on the utility. No period after a spill is set in law. The Department of Health samples coastal beaches and may issue health advisories when results fail its standards (section 514.023); county health departments also issue no-contact advisories after some spills, at their discretion. Florida has no combined sewers (sewage and rainwater in one pipe).

What is published. DEP's Public Notice of Pollution service lists every notice since July 2017 with the time DEP received it, the release start and end dates, whether the release is ongoing, the facility, the county and a point. About three notices in four are untreated or partly treated sewage; the rest are treated effluent, reclaimed water, fuel, chemical and other spills, which this site leaves out of its sewage reports. Most sewage notices use a form that gives the wastewater type, cause, volume spilled and recovered, and whether a water body was affected. The Department of Health publishes each beach sample with a yes or no for an advisory, and DEP publishes algal bloom sampling by site. The Department of Health's results page shows only the latest samples for each sampling point (about five months) and stops answering automated requests after several dozen points, so this site reads the beaches over several runs; a point not read on a given day keeps its last results, and a beach advisory can appear here later than on the Department's own page.

What is not published. The name of the receiving water: the form asks only whether a water body was affected, yes or no, and this site reads a name only when the description gives one. The time a spill started: only the date. Volumes are often blank in the first notice. Whether the public near the spill was told. County health advisories after spills are not collected in one place.

Known problems in the data. The service renumbers its rows when it is rebuilt, so this site identifies a notice by its State Watch Office number and the time it was received. The number is typed by the filer and is sometimes missing or reused. Later notices about the same incident (updates and final reports) are linked to the first. Notice times are stored as Florida clock time. Some notices still read "ongoing" years later because no update was filed.

What this site does about it. Untreated and partly treated sewage is shown as a sewage report; treated effluent, reclaimed water and biosolids are not. A notice filed by a member of the public is listed but sets no status. Of the 16,571 notices DEP published from July 2017 to November 3, 2026, 12,473 are shown here as sewage reports and 26 more are sewage notices filed by members of the public, listed without a status; 665 about treated effluent, 931 about reclaimed water, 45 about biosolids and 2,431 about other pollution are counted but not shown. A notice whose form says no water body was affected is kept but not placed on a water, unless its description says the sewage entered, may have entered or flowed into a named water: it is then shown on that water as a caution, never as an advisory, while the spill is reported as ongoing (for up to 7 days with no end) and then for this site's usual caution period after a reported end. A report on the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf is shown along a stretch of the shore, up to 20 kilometres each way from where it was reported, not over the open water; the stretch crosses narrow inlets and passes, and where a bay or sound opens widely to the sea it follows that shore too and the report is also shown on that water. Dates without a time are shown as dates. With no period in law, this site applies 72 hours of caution from a reported end. Beach advisories and algal blooms are shown in their own categories.

Of the 237 registered treatment-plant outfalls in Florida, 181 (76 percent) are tied to a water record on this site and 56 (24 percent) are not yet (the water they discharge to has no record, or the location given could not be matched); a report from one of those outfalls that names no water appears on the map at its point with no water coloured.

Of this state's reports on this site, 100 percent are dated to the day or better; the newest dated report is from Nov 3, 2026. Coverage: Dated reports.