Clean Water Ad Hoc Committee

1 MINUTES City of Holmes Beach Clean Water Ad Hoc Committee September 10, 2025, 11:00 a.m. Patricia A. Geyer Commission Chambers 5801 Marina Drive, Holmes Beach FL 34217 Present: Marty Hicks, John Kolojeski, Scott MacGregor, Charles Mopps, William Romberger, Chair Jennifer Miller Absent: Mike Pritchett Also Present: Mayor Titsworth, Commissioner Schaefer _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Call to Order Chair Miller called the meeting to order at 11:03 a.m. 2. Swearing In New Committee Member City Clerk Johnston swore in new Committee Member Charlie Mopps. 3. Roll Call Given the presence of a quorum, the meeting proceeded. Chair Miller informed the Committee of the resignation of member Jeff Drinkard, who is leaving the island. Chair Miller and Commissioner Schaefer expressed their thanks for Jeff’s service. Chair Miller also introduced new member Charlie Mopps. 4. Review and Approval of June 18, 2025, Minutes Moved by William Romberger Seconded by Chair Jennifer Miller Motion Approved 5. PFAS in Florida Water - Dr. John Bowden, University of Florida Dr. Bowden and his colleagues provided an extensive presentation entitled “PFAS in Florida Waters.” The following are key takeaways:  PFOA and PFAS are synthetic chemical compounds that are not found in nature. There are currently around 15,000 such chemicals and the number is rapidly expanding. Most of the compounds are proprietary and therefore untestable. Because of the extraordinarily strong bond between carbon and fluorine elements, these compounds are virtually indestructible (e.g., incineration just releases the compounds into the air), hence the label “forever chemicals.”

2  These compounds are used in a remarkable number of products/applications, including coatings on food containers/wrappers, waterproof coatings on clothing and electronics, cleaning products, cosmetics, firefighting foam, propellants, and many others.  These compounds are present in tap and many bottled waters, in fresh and saltwater (particularly in coastline foam), in indoor air (in dust), in outdoor air (where it returns to the ground in rain), in landfills where it leaches into ground water, and ultimately can be found in blood where it takes years to be metabolized.  The Bowden Lab (see bowdenlaboratory.com) conducts research to develop new ways of measuring and studying the “life cycle” of chemicals of concern, such as PFOA and PFAS. This includes their distribution in the environment, what happens to them over time, the impact of exposure such as possible adverse health outcomes, and ways to manage and remediate.  The Bowden Lab has a number of projects underway, one of which used “crowdsourcing” to collect surface water samples across the state, based on which a “heat map” was compiled showing high and low concentration areas, in order to identify the source (e.g., military facilities, airports, wastewater treatment plants—particularly spill incidents). Crowdsourcing was also used in a statewide project to test and map PFAS in drinking water. Another project is using Tampa Bay as a model site to develop an extremely high- resolution heat map using volunteers to collect water from 515 sample sites. Another project is studying PFAS in 86 species of fish, with the objective of issuing consumption advisories in the case of high concentrations. Dr. Bowden noted that the Bowden Lab was willing and able to do whatever testing we might be interested in (PFAS or otherwise). Commissioner Schaefer tasked the Committee to decide what elements/locations are most in need of testing. Dr. Bowden also agreed to provide the City with fish sample kits to participate in the fish study. Bill will take the lead on this. 6. Additional Business Review of September I4CW Calendar Theme of the Month: “Be a Good Human—Harvest Rainwater” 7. Questions and Comments 7.a Questions and Comments from Clean Water Committee Members Local Community/Partner Organization Upcoming Events A flyer was distributed for The Great Egmont Key Cleanup, which is scheduled for September 27th. Charlie noted the upcoming Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association (FSBPA) 4th Annual Florida Resilience Conference September 17th-19th at the Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor. 7.b Questions and Comments from Mayor and City Commission None. 7.c Questions and Comments from Staff None. 7.d Questions and Comments from The Public and Press None.

3 8. Confirm Next Meeting Date, October 8, 2025 - 9:00 AM 9. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 1:07 p.m. Minutes Submitted by: Marty Hicks Minutes Approved: October 8, 2025