NRDC Lists Most Polluted Beaches

I meant to post on this earlier this week, but things have been hectic lately.

The National Resources Defense Council released their review of 3,500 beaches in the US, organizing data on pollution, the frequency of closings and the level of monitoring in these areas. Of the six worst beaches, dubbed "beach bums", defined as having "violated public health standards 51 percent or more of the time samples were taken", Maryland has two: Hacks Point and Bay Country Campground and Beach.

The problems have been on the rise for years now, but seemed to spike in 2006. Runoff carrying pollution into the water was one of the most interesting increases, accounting for over 8,000 of the 25,000 total closings in 2006, up 21 percent since 2005 alone. Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's water program, insinuated that unenlightened development around the coasts (something Maryland has a big problem with) is a culprit:

"A summer rainstorm should not have to mean that endless amounts of pollution are washed down to the beach, or that sewers will overflow. We can fix leaky pipes; we can require costal developers to maintain vegetation to absorb rain. The solutions are out there," Stoner said.

This was most interesting:

There were over 14,000 closings in 2006 due to unknown sources of pollution. Scary thought. Improved detection methods, anyone?

You can read the full report yourself, or one of its many press releases. It'll be interesting to see what kind of effect this study has on legislation and monitoring. The ScienceDaily article discusses the Beach Protection Act at the end of the article, but makes no direct connection with this study:

In May, the Beach Protection Act of 2007 (H.R. 2537/S. 1506) was introduced in the U.S. Congress, reauthorizing the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) of 2000. If passed, the Act will mandate the use of rapid testing methods to detect beach water contamination in two hours or less so that beachgoers can be notified of public health risks promptly.

The Act will also increase the amount of grant money available to states from $30 million to $60 million annually through 2012, and expand the uses of grant funds to include source tracking and pollution prevention.