Surfrider Foundation: MAKING WAVES, "How Clean Is Your Beach?"


	How clean is your beach? from "Testing the Waters VIII: Has Your Vacation Beach Cleaned Up Its Act?"; NRDC, July 1998 MAKING WAVES, Oct./Nov. 1998

For the past eight years the Natural Resources Defense Council has released an excellent report on water quality called "Testing the Waters". The report is based on a survey of beach closings and beachwater-monitoring programs in coastal and Great Lakes states and acts as a reminder of how unchecked pollution continues to lower our quality of life and threaten public health.

The following are some of the results of the most recent survey:

During 1997, there were at least 4,153 individual closings and advisories at U.S. ocean, bay, Great Lakes and some freshwater beaches., 17 extended (6-12 weeks) closings and advisories and 55 permanent (over 12 weeks) closings and advisories. Including the days of extended closings, the total comes to over 5,199 closings and advisories.
The Major causes of beach closings and advisories in 1997 were as follows:
- 69 percent based on monitoring that detected bacteria levels exceeding beachwater-quality standards (elevated levels are usually due to sewage or stormwater discharges)
- 13 percent in response to a known pollution event (without solely relying on monitoring results)
- 18 percent precautionary due to rain known to carry pollution to swimming waters

["Testing the Waters VIII-Has Your Vacation Beach Cleaned Up Its Act?"; NRDC/July 1998]

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