Venice officials take issue with report that questions city water quality

A report by a national environmental group that questioned the City of Venice’s water quality has prompted both the city and Sarasota County Health Department to push back, questioning the validity of the the survey’s collection methods.

Both Javier Vargas, the utilities director for the city of Venice, and Ray Burroughs, an environmental specialist at the Sarasota County Health Department who monitors compliance for the water system, stressed that Venice is in compliance with state and federal drinking water requirements.

But that’s not what a database released by the Environmental Work Group appeared to suggest last month.

Nominally EWG, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., used its own water quality guidelines to assess tap water between 2010 and 2015.