RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The city of Riviera Beach is working to avoid paying a fine of more than $1 million for breaking water quality regulations.
City Manager Johnathan Evans wants staff to negotiate the fine with the Florida Department of Health (DOH). He hopes the agency will allow the city's Utilities Special District to use the money on repairs as “in-kind” payments requiring the utility to spend money on repairing their infrastructure.
In November, the DOH in Palm Beach County offered the city a settlement worth $1.2 million. The agency found that the city had broken the law 155 times, mostly because it did not report water quality tests.
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Records show the fine, worth $1,238,307.18, was increased due to the utility’s history of noncompliance.
Part of the noncompliance included an $80,000 fine assessed this year after the utility district’s response to a water contamination event in June 2023 where it waited seven months to notify the public about E. coli in the city’s drinking water. Then, the city was denied to pay this fine with “in-kind” payments.
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The city is also under investigation for fabricating test results but no fine has been assessed yet.
A report from 2016 found 21 different enforcement actions against the utility due to issues with the water, which included several fines. Most of these fines were ultimately paid "in-kind".
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WPTV Reporter Ethan Stein has contacted the DOH in Palm Beach County about the fine for over a week with no response.
