NO MONITORING OF BEACH WATER SAFETY   Alabama   Louisiana   Oregon   Washington Source: Natural Resources Defense Council SEE ALSO For more environment stories go to CNN.com/Nature EPA For more information see the EPA's detailed map of the United States beaches

July 15, 1999
Web posted at: 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT)

(CNN) -- If you're planning to go to a United States beach, you may want to check what a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has to say about your destination. The report's information includes an advisory that four states -- Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon and Washington -- still have no regular seawater monitoring programs for beach swimming.

In its ninth annual report on beach-water safety, the NRDC says it has found more states and beach communities monitoring water quality and notifying the public about pollution problems. On the downside, the NRDC says record-high numbers of swimming advisories and beach closings indicate that too little is being done to prevent pollution from such sources as sewage and storm-water discharges.

Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Texas, the NRDC says, have monitoring programs for all or part of their beaches, but have no public notification procedures.

NRDC gives higher marks to Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It says those states comprehensively monitor most or all of their beaches and notify the public when hazards exist.

The report says the total number of advisories and closures last year was 75-percent higher than in 1997. The NRDC attributes part of the increase to pollution caused by El Niño-related storms in Southern California.

"In that state alone," the report says, "advisories and closures soared to 3,273, up from 1,141 in 1997. Heavy rains such as those in California last year can wash contaminants into the beach water, sending bacterial levels skyrocketing."

The increase in other closures and advisories, according to the NRDC, is related to stepped-up beach monitoring by state and local authorities. It credits the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) voluntary BEACH Program for encouraging vigilance. The NRDC says focusing the public's attention on beach-water safety -- along with the prospect of declining tourism -- has helped authorities enforce better monitoring.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Georgia -- once labeled "beach bums" by the NRDC -- now are cited for initiating monitoring and notification procedures.

The NRDC says towns must act if beach water is determined to be substandard. It says some towns in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York don't always close beaches when water-quality standards are violated. Hawaii and Rhode Island, the report says, are inconsistent in issuing advisories and ordering closures.

The NRDC is calling for several steps:

• passage of congressional legislation to ensure consistent health standards, monitoring and notification procedures;
• establishment of the EPA's BEACH Program as mandatory;
• congressional funding of the Clinton administration's Clean Water Action Plan; and
• placement of controls on sewage overflows, polluted runoff and urban storm water.

"Ultimately, swimmers will not be adequately protected," the text of the report says, "until pollution sources are cleaned up. "

The NRDC gives citizens instruction on helping to keep beaches clean:

• redirect runoff from roofs and driveways to lawns and gardens;
• use such natural fertilizers as compost;
• maintain septic systems; and
• properly dispose of household toxins and used motor oil.