A day at the beach: sun, sand and sewage

WASHINGTON — Stomach flu, skin rashes, pink eye, dysentery, hepatitis and tar balls – just a few of the fun things you might pick up at the nation’s beaches, which a new report says saw increased closures last year.

U.S. beaches combined were closed for nearly 25,000 days in 2010, the second highest in the last two decades and a 29 percent increase from the previous year, according to the beach water quality report released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

A third of those closures were directly linked to storm water runoff causing bacteria or sewage levels in excess of the national standard, the report said.“Pollution at the beach is preventable,” said David Beckman, director of the water program at the organization. He cited green infrastructure such as porous pavement, green roofs and rain barrels as first-line defenses.

“By making communities literally greener on land, we can reverse this dirty legacy,” he said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, which compiled the data from state water testing agencies and used standards from the Environmental Protection Agency, also issued several recommendations for lawmakers.

It urged Congress to adopt recommendations from the report on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and pass the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act, a bill by Rep. Donna Edwards, D-M.D., and Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The bill is intended to boost green infrastructure nationwide and is currently in committee in both the House and the Senate.

Though the report encouraged stronger EPA water pollution regulations, some, like Heritage Foundation policy analyst Nicolas Loris, believe the solution is not in further national regulation.

“Local governments and state governments should play a more critical role, rather than having a large federal approach,” Loris said. “These are problems that are specific to certain communities, and rather than have a broad, sweeping approach, I think it’s more effective to tackle them at local levels.”

The EPA said that beach water pollution comes primarily from storm water and agricultural runoff, boating and wildlife waste, and sewage.

While no coastal state met the standard for safe beaches, New Hampshire beaches were generally the cleanest, although they exceeded the safety standards in only 1 percent of their samples.

Louisiana beaches were the greatest offenders, with 37 percent of their samples below par, showing the largest quality decline from the previous year. The Pelican State saw over 2,200 oil spill closure days in 2010 alone, and both Florida and Louisiana continue to have advisories on some of their beaches.

“Folks deserve to swim in clean water when they go to the beach,” said Jon Devine, the project designer for the report. “They shouldn’t have to worry that a day at the beach will turn into a night at the hospital.”