Clean Water News

Monmouth Beach, NJ – During the height of beach season, a report shows serious public health risks and problems with the health of beach water in New Jersey and across the nation.  The 18th annual report, “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Beach Water Quality at Vacation Beaches,” prepared by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), documents beach closings and advisories across the country, and identifies the sources of beach water pollution, the health risks, and the economic impact.  The report, which was released locally in New Jersey by Clean Ocean Action (COA) and Environment New Jersey, provides information about beach closures in 2007.  For the full report, go to http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/titinx.asp. 

Overall, the water at the nation’s beaches was unsafe for swimming last year with the second-highest number of beach closing and advisory days ever.  Using the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the NRDC report shows the number of closing and advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches was more than 22,000 for the third consecutive year.

“The number of beach closures nationwide and here in New Jersey confirm that our nation’s beaches continue to suffer from pollution and that swimmers, surfers, and divers suffer the consequences of this persistent pollution,” said Kari Martin, COA  Policy Communications Director. 

According to the report, there were 22,571 days of beach closings and advisories nationwide at U.S. ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches in 2007, a decrease from the record high of 25,643 in 2006.  This decrease can be attributed to record high rainfall in parts of the country in 2006. 

The regional results were different.  In New Jersey, the 2007 ocean and bay beach closures were as follows:

Ÿ        142 days of closures/advisories, an increase from the 134 days of closures/advisories in 2006;

Ÿ        102 days (or 72 percent) were preemptive closings and advisories, where beaches were closed as a precaution due to heavy rainfall that is known to cause high bacteria and pollution problems at those beaches, or due to visible plumes from known sources of pollution such as sewage leaks;

Ÿ        37 closing and advisory days were a result of direct monitoring the revealed elevated bacteria levels from unknown sources of contamination;

Ÿ        102 or 72 percent of the closing and advisory days were             caused by pollution after storm events (i.e., from                         stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows CSOs). 

“We can’t ignore the red flags that are going up,” said Doug O'Malley, field director for Environment New Jersey.  “More Jersey beaches are being shut down because of the pollution from overdevelopment, and the problem is getting worse. Developers are loving the Shore to death, and we need Gov. Corzine to put the brakes on Shore development.”

The report also reveals the percent of monitoring samples that exceeded the state’s daily maximum bacterial standards.  Nationally, seven percent of beach water samples violated health standards, showing no improvement from 2006.  In New Jersey, the percentage of health standard exceedances increased to five percent in 2007, up from three percent in 2006.  The report lists New Jersey as 19th in the nation for the percent samples exceeding the national daily bacterial standard. 

“We are seeing every year more and more beach closings, brown tides and jelly fish at the Shore. This is an alarm bell going off that we have to do more to protect our ocean and Shore that we all love,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the NJ Sierra Club. “Sprawl and overdevelopment is directly killing our coast and the state of NJ just wants to study the problem instead of fixing it.”

The increase in NJ closings and advisories during the 2007 beach bathing season (Memorial Day to Labor Day) is most likely attributed to rainfall and the resulting polluted stormwater runoff.  When it rains, bacteria from pet wastes, pesticides, fertilizers, litter, other pollutants, and even raw sewage wash into waterways, thereby closing beaches.  Data shows that many beach closures follow a rainfall event.  Also, aging and poorly designed sewage and storm water systems hold much of the blame for pollution in coastal waters. 

“Unfortunately, citizens need to know about poor water conditions at their beaches to prevent them from getting sick,” added Martin.  “Pollutants, such as bacteria and viruses, that wash into coastal waters are harmful to human health.”

Contact with bacteria-polluted waters, including while swimming, surfing, diving, water-skiing, and surf fishing, can cause diseases and illnesses such as gastroenteritis, nausea, vomiting, dysentery, hepatitis, and ear, nose, and throat problems.  Consequences are worse for children, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone with a weakened immune system. 

Current Monitoring Program & Need for Improvement

New Jersey has a history of extensive beach closures due to a number of human-related or environmental problems, and was the first state to have a statewide mandatory beach water monitoring program that included a bacteria standard, a testing protocol, and mandatory closure requirements whenever the standard is exceeded.  NJ monitors its waters at least once a week and notifies the public of closures if sampling shows elevated bacterial levels (above 104 colonies of enterococci per 100 milliliters) after a second confirmatory sampling.  However, closures to protect human health occur after a delay of two days, due to current sampling procedures.  In addition, beach monitoring programs do not test for viral pathogens, which can also cause human illness.  Not only are the beaches polluted, the way they are tested fails to protect public health.  Beach water quality standards are more than 20 years old and rely on outdated science. 

The groups at today’s press conference called for the following actions to address failures in the monitoring program:

·         use “same day” test for bacteria to issue advisories for polluted waters (this test was used in 2007 for a pilot study by NJDEP in partnership with USEPA and showed results closely related to 24-hour test results);

·         advisories and testing after rain events;

·         more monitoring sites;

·         issuing advisories or closing beaches that test high for bacteria, even though the beach is not life-guarded or considering a “bathing beach;”

    ·         mandatory track-down and elimination of pollution                       sources where standards are exceeded. 

“These beach closures are places where bacterial levels exceeded limits two days in a row.  We think the public health would be better protected if warning signs were placed at beaches after one day of high bacterial levels,” said John Weber, Northeast Regional Manager for the Surfrider Foundation. 

Federal Bill to Improve the Nation’s Beach Water

Groups commended federal efforts to protect citizens at the nation’s shores with the introduction of the Beach Protection Act of 2007.  Both Senate and House of Representative Beach Protection Act bills are pending in Congress as part of a package of amendments called the Advancing America’s Priorities Act (S. 3297). 

The lead sponsors of the Beach Protection Act of 2007 are U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (NJ-D-6).  The Act reauthorizes the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) of 2000.  If passed, the Beach Protection Act of 2007 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.

Know Before You Go…In

To protect their health, citizens should exercise caution if they are not sure if the water is safe by avoiding swimming after heavy rain, looking for and not swimming near storm drains or pipes emptying on or near the beach, and looking for more obvious signs of pollution, such as discoloration.  For information on the latest beach closings in New Jersey, call the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s beach closure hotline at 1-800-648-SAND or visit www.njbeaches.org or www.Earth911.org.

According to the groups releasing the report today, citizens can actively participate in improving water quality and can protect their health and beaches by practicing environmentally conscious behavior, such as cleaning up after their pets, conserving water, and not dumping anything into storm drains, which flow to nearby waterways, and eventually,
to the ocean.