America’s beaches: sometimes far from postcard pretty
There’s been much media exaggeration of the oil spill impact on the US’s Gulf Beaches, but there are seriously horrible beaches outlined in the “Testing the Waters 2010” report including a top ten that no one wants to brag about.
"From human and animal waste to dangerous oil slicks, our nation’s beaches continue to suffer from pollution that can make people sick, harm marine life and destroy coastal economies," said David Beckman, Director of the Water Program for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which released the report.
In 2009, closings and advisories at the nation’s beaches hit the sixth highest level in the report’s 20 year history, with a staggering 18,682 closings and advisory days nationwide.
On a state-by-state level, Louisiana, Rhode Island and Illinois beaches showed the highest number of pollution violations in 2009. Regionally, Great Lakes area beaches had the highest number of contamination incidents, while beaches in the southeast part of the Delmarva Peninsula in the mid-Atlantic tested cleanest.
Even sunny Orange County, Cal., has its share of polluted beaches.
“Poche Beach has been ranked by environmental groups over the years as one of California’s most polluted beaches, with stormwater and streetwater runoff blamed for the high levels of bacteria,” the report found.
The worst offender in the report: Jeorse Park Beach in Lake County, Indiana.
The report found:
“Visitors to Indiana looking to ‘restart your engines,’ as the official tourism slogan encourages, might want to do so far from this stretch of sand. This public access beach on Lake Michigan moved from third place in 2008 to take the cake as the country’s most polluted beach, with 76 percent of the water samples taken exceeding pollution standards for human and animal waste.
The beach has also been closed for several days in 2010 due to bacterial contamination.”
By David Wilkening
David
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