Clean Water News

As the new home of WISPIRG's environmental work, Wisconsin Environment can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.  

Pollution-related beach closings and advisories nearly doubled last year compared to 1999, providing compelling evidence that the nation's beaches have a major water pollution problem. Testing the Waters: A Guide to Beach Water Quality at Vacation Beaches, a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and released today by WISPIRG, finds the increase in closings and advisories is a result of increased monitoring, better testing standards and more complete reporting. The report can be accessed at www.pirg.org/reports/beaches.

Nationally, there were 11,270 beach closings and advisories in 2000, compared to 6,160 in 1999. This year's report also found another disturbing trend: beaches reporting pollution problems from an unknown source increased from 40% in 1999 to 56% in 2000.

"The more we look, the more pollution we find," said Ann Bodden, WISPIRG Campaign Coordinator. "But it's outrageous that more than half of the time local authorities didn't know where the pollution was coming from when they had to close a beach or post an advisory. We need to track down and eliminate these sources of pollution."

States Doing Better Job Of Monitoring
Over the 11 years that NRDC has published Testing the Waters, a number of coastal states have improved their monitoring, testing and notification practices.

More state agencies have adopted at least one of the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended health standards for swimmer safety. Still, improved standards and monitoring have found that beach pollution is more extensive than previously realized. Elevated bacteria counts are now the source of 85% of beach closings and advisories.

"We're seeing a much more realistic picture of the beach water pollution problem now that more states are monitoring and reporting, but we haven't turned the corner on identifying the sources of pollution and preventing them in the first place," said Sarah Chasis, NRDC senior attorney and director of the water and coastal program.

No Uniform Nationwide Monitoring, Testing And Notification Standard
While monitoring has increased, there is still no uniform, regular standard for monitoring across the nation. Standards used to test water quality, especially to detect bacteria and pathogens, vary across the country. States and municipalities are inconsistent in the way they issue closings and advisories, or notify the public when there is a pollution problem. Even if a state regularly tests water quality, it may not close a beach when health standards are exceeded. For example, some towns and counties in Wisconsin do not always close beaches or issue an advisory when their water violates health standards.

WISPIRG hailed the passage last year of the BEACH Act by Congress but called for strong implementation of the law. "The EPA needs to put out strong standards for water quality monitoring and public notification, and Congress should fully fund these programs," said Bodden. President Bush proposed only $2 million for monitoring and public notification instead of the $30 million called for in the BEACH Act. "We also need to clean up the sources of pollution. The Bush administration has blocked two new standards for cleaning up water pollution. Public health demands that these standards be put into effect." The administration has stopped rules dealing with sanitary sewer overflows and with clean-up of impaired waters.