Continuing in my August state of mind here, I'd like to help you choose your beach for that vacation you almost forgot to take. You have probably heard cries and whispers of the fact that our favorite summer playgrounds are getting more and more contaminated, resulting in more and more days of beach closings all along our coastlines. This is bad news in so many ways, it's hard to know where or how to begin.
It's bad news economically, since the dollars that beach vacationers bring/don't bring to coastal areas are financial life or death to those areas. We already know what bad news our ocean pollution is for those who make their living fishing, as well as those of us who used to enjoy eating fish. The major cause of these beach closings is bacteria from sewage draining into coastal waters. The reports from which the recent news headlines have come make very enlightening summer reading, though perhaps NOT beach reading. The NRDC Report, Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches, is their...
...annual survey of water quality monitoring and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that closings due to bacterial contamination are on the rise nationwide. Across the country, pollution caused nearly 20,000 days of closings and advisories at ocean and Great Lakes beaches last year -- more than ever recorded in the survey's 15-year history. The 2005 survey is based on information reported for 2004.
So, why is it that there is increasingly worse pollution from sewage draining into beach areas? From the NRDC, this clue:
Even as more states monitor their beaches, coastal water quality faces a persistent threat: the Bush administration's rollback of programs that keep U.S. beachwater clean and safe for swimming. Since taking office in 2001, the administration has declined to protect many wetlands and headwaters that filter beachwater sources, proposed to lessen requirements for sewage treatment, allowed contaminated stormwater from new development to pollute rivers, slashed federal funding for clean water programs and held up rules that would reduce overflows of raw sewage. Sewage poses a major threat to beachwater quality. But for more than three years, the Bush administration has shelved rules that would reduce raw sewage discharges and require sewer system operators to detect overflows before beachwater quality is affected.
This report is amazingly thorough. You can find the state of your choice and find detailed reports of beach conditions. I have only checked out Delaware, and find that all our coastal beaches are okay for "primary recreational contact." None of the other state waters: rivers, lakes, ponds, are fit for human bodily contact. When I first moved here, we could swim in several of the ponds in State Parks. They are all now too polluted, mainly from agricultural run-off, for swimming.
Another report to check for beach conditions is the Surf Rider Foundation's State of the Beach Report 2005. Who cares more about the oceans than those who practically live in them, the surfers who travel from place to place searching for that perfect wave? Every year the Foundation updates the health of our nation's beaches. It is a report
...... intended to empower concerned citizens and coastal managers by giving them the information needed to take action. For six years we have been collecting information on beach access, surf zone water quality, beach erosion, beach fill, shoreline structures, beach ecology and surfing areas to get an understanding of the condition of our nation's beaches. For 23 coastal states and territories we looked at the availability of public information on these "beach health indicators" and also evaluated the status of the indicators.
So, before you wax your bikini line or your surfboard, take a look at these reports. These two organizations have done all beach bums and bunnies a major service. And once your legislators get back from their vacations, please give them a piece of your mind about this situation.
Continuing in my August state of mind here, I'd like to help you choose your beach for that vacation you almost forgot to take. You have probably heard cries and whispers of the fact that our favorite summer playgrounds are getting more and more contaminated, resulting in more and more days of beach closings all along our coastlines. This is bad news in so many ways, it's hard to know where or how to begin.
