Waste washes up on West End beaches

Florida Street resident Dee Cummings walked along the beach at Georgia Avenue on Tuesday morning, days after she said residents and lifeguards discovered what they believe to be medical waste — including some needles, syringes and catheter bags — on the beach last Friday.

“It was a steady line of trash,” she said, as she spotted remnants such as pill bags, straws and other trash. While most of the waste seemed to be cleaned up on Tuesday, it had been much worse over a several day period, Cummings said.

“There were bags full of garbage, and there were used condoms all over the beach,” she said, adding that she and some neighbors had contacted the city. “Where did it come from, and why wasn’t the beach closed?”

The issue had Cummings and many of her neighbors on edge, she said, and the waste found in Long Beach came as eight beaches in Atlantic Beach were closed on Aug. 19 after dozens of needles, pill bottles and other medical waste was found there.

“We want to know what happened, if there was something dumped off-shore,” said one Florida Street resident who asked to remain anonymous. “Atlantic Beach closed their beach, why weren’t we closed?”

City Manager Charles Theofan said that beach maintenance crews have been addressing the issue, and have been out cleaning the beaches. By Tuesday, he said, most of the waste had been removed.

“Last Friday, we had heard that there was some stuff washing up on Atlantic Beach, and on Sunday, I got a call that we had some stuff washing up in Long Beach,” Theofan said. “This does happen from time to time, it happens at times when there are very heavy rains and illegal dumping.

Theofan said that some empty blood vials that had been in the water for some time were found and, he said, “there may have been one or two needles.”

“We had our beach maintenance people go out and actually picking it up to be safe,” he said. “It came to our attention and I think we reacted swiftly.”

Cummings, however, said that not all of the waste had been removed, and that the city vehicle that drags a raking device over beach sand to remove debris does not pick up smaller items like needles and condoms.