Water at South Florida beaches will continue to undergo routine testing for bacteria, now that Congress has restored funding for the program.

The Obama administration had proposed eliminating $9.5 million given to states each year to pay for testing beach water. Florida relies on the money to fund its program, which includes testing at 42 sites in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Congress put back the money after lobbying by environmental groups, and the budget bills have been signed by President Obama.

Mara Dias, water quality manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group that had lobbied to restore the funding, said the testing program is a vital and cost-effective way to protect human health.

"Without beach testing, we're not going to know if the water's clean or not, if we're going to get sick or not," she said. "If we don't test and identify where the pollution sources are, we can't fix them and make them better."

Florida's share of the federal money was $488,000 last year a lower-than-normal number because of the government shutdown - and $512,000 the previous year.

Among the advocates for restoring the funds was U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who joined several senators in a letter to Senate leaders urging that the money be put back in.

"Families across the country look forward to beach vacation and expect that it is safe to go in the water," they wrote.

Every two weeks of so, state health department workers take water samples from various sites along the coast and test it for enterococcus bacteria. It's not that this particular bacteria is harmful itself. But it's an indicator of the presence of human or animal waste, which carries germs that can cause a variety of illnesses, including salmonella, shigellosis, hepatitis A, skin rashes and eye infections.

Typically, a few swimming advisories a year are posted in South Florida, until the contamination clears up. The source of the high bacteria levels is rarely found, although often the counts spike after heavy rains, which washes animal waste into the water. Among the other causes are sewage line breaks and pets, according to the Florida Department of Health.

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Funding restored for beach water testing