Which Beaches Have the Cleanest Water?

WASHINGTON D.C. — New Hampshire’s beaches have the cleanest water quality in the nation with New Jersey’s beaches ranking 14th of 30 states that have beaches, according to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
NRDC released its 20th annual report of water quality at vacation beaches. New Jersey exceeded safe standards 5 percent of the time. A total of 245 beaches in this state are monitored for water quality once per week.
The top 10 cleanest beaches are New Hampshire, Delaware, Oregon, Virginia, Hawaii, North Carolina, Maryland, South Carolina, the State of Washington and Florida.
The states at the bottom of the list are Louisiana, Rhode Island, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, (Great Lakes beaches.)
New Jersey’s rank at number 14 may be skewed by North Jersey beaches. The dirtiest beaches in the state are in Beachwood, Point Pleasant and Pine Beach.
The report notes: “sewer systems in and around the New York/New Jersey Harbor are designed so that during periods of wet weather, excess flows are discharged to the harbor waters.”
Cape May County had the lowest percentage of exceeding the state limits coming in at zero percent, just under Atlantic County’s 1 percent. The only beach closings in the county last year where two days for the Ocean, Guerney and Decatur street beaches in Cape May.
The NRDC report notes the huge economic impact of beaches.
“Beaches, rivers, and lakes are the number one vacation destination for Americans; about one-fourth of the population goes swimming in our waterways every year. Approximately 85% of all U.S. tourism revenue is received in coastal states. Americans take more than 1.8 billion trips annually—or an average of approximately six trips per person per year.”
Stormwater is a major contributor to beach closings for high bacteria counts. The report notes some towns are treating stormwater to reduce bacterial contaminants, such as installing filters into outfall catch basins and using ultraviolet disinfection.
“In North Carolina, a $1.1 million treatment unit for treating bacteria in a storm water outfall began operating in Dare County in the fall of 2009. In this system, the stormwater enters a central chamber and is routed to an outfall at the beach after passing through filters lining the central chamber. The water quality from this unit will be monitored, and if the device is successful, more of these units will be installed statewide.”
Sanitary sewer overflows into stormwater drains have contributed to the few beach closings experienced this county. Sanitary sewer overflows are illegal, yet the EPA has estimated that there are more than 23,000 sanitary sewer over-flows every year into rivers, lakes, wetlands, and coastal waters, according to the report.
The NRDC report claims the EPA fecal indicator concentrations were set high.
“Under the levels set by the EPA in the 1986 criteria, 19 out of 1,000 people swimming in ocean waters and 8 out of 1,000 swimmers in fresh waters just meeting these standards will become ill. Put another way, if a family of four were to swim once a week in the summer (June, July, and August) in ocean waters that just meet the EPA’s standard, one member of the family would probably become ill.”
The Cape May County Heath Department uses the EPA’s daily maximum bacterial standard for “designated beach areas” in marine waters of 104 enterococcus per 100 milliliters of beach water.
NRDC is also calling for quicker testing methods because current approved detection methods require an incubation period of 24 hours, which allows swimmers to be potentially exposed to contaminated water.
Read the NRDC report: http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/titinx.asp