Just before temperatures in the Northeast drove hoardes of people to the beach, David Chokachi joined Surfrider staff to present our case before a roomful of DC’s youngest and brightest to restore federal investment in beach water quality monitoring programs. David gave remarks at a briefing hosted by Senators Whitehouse and Lautenberg on Monday, June 18th. At issue was the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to eliminate all funding for its popular Beach Grant Program in its FY2013 budget.
Surfrider was joined by NRDC and the Maryland Department of the Environment in our appeals to the Senate to protect the health of the American beach-going public and restore funding for this vital program.
Relating his experiences from the international TV phenomenon Baywatch, David Chokachi spoke to the value of protecting America’s image of clean, healthy beaches. “If you take away funding for water quality testing, you put families and children at risk,” says Chokachi. “Everyone has a right to know if the water at the beach is safe to swim in.”
For background on this issue click here.
We also have an activist toolkit available here that you can use to plug into this campaign to keep valuable water quality information available at your beach.
