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How safe are America's beaches?
August 11, 2006
America has some of the best beaches in the world, but during this August when most Americans take a beach holiday to escape sweltering temperatures, A new report by the well respected environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, finds more beaches and coastal waters than ever before are polluted and the government says the NRDC is doing very little about it. Since President Bush took office, his administration has rolled back programs that keep U-S beach water clean and safe for swimming. The White House, says the NRDC, has slashed federal funding for clean water programs, held up rules to reduce the flow of raw sewage, and loosened regulations on sewer system operators. The result for 2005 is staggering.
Across the United States, on all three coasts, west, east and Gulf of Mexico and Hawaii, there were more than 20 thousand days of closings and health advisories at ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches....up significantly from the year before. In 2000 Congress passed the Beach Act requiring the Environmental Protection Agency, an arm of the Bush administration, to come up with new beach safety standards by October of 2005. The EPA failed the task and now says it will be 2011 before it can prompt a lawsuit from the NRDC.
The experts say increased rainfall has pushed agricultural pesticides and run off into coastal waters but human and animal waste in the water on America's beaches has jumped. Many Americans are now asking if it's safe to go the beach. The NRDC found that even on beaches the government says are safe for swimming, monitoring had revealed unhealthy levels of dangerous bacteria from fecal contamination. There have also been un upsurge in Red Blooms, when the ocean turns warmer and hundreds of square miles of beaches are off limits because of infestations of algae that make beach water into a smelly foul soup. The experts say increased nutrients from farm land run off and human waste are partly to blame.
And it’s not confined to certain areas. Every US state has a beach pollution problem with more potentially harmful bacteria than is allowed by law. This may be because more money is being spent to monitor the water, but the extent of the problem and what to do about it is overwhelming. Nearly 20 percent of swimmers in the Great Lakes report gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory illnesses from the water, and several million Americans, say the experts, come down with bacterial diseases from polluted beach water.
Still, tens of millions of Americans will escape the heat of the cities and head for the shores of lakes and oceans this month. Small children and the elderly are at most risk and pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems like cancer patients are being advised to avoid swimming.
Whole sections of the beautiful beaches of southern California are marked off limits because of human fecal contamination. A recent Los Angeles Times newspaper series on the oceans spotlighted the large underwater pipes where millions of gallons of untreated sewage are dumped into coastal waters from municipalities that can't seem to effectively enforce their own clean water standards, let alone the federal governments.
America's third coast, affectionately referred to as the Redneck Riviera, is the Gulf, and there warmer than usual water combined with agricultural run off has dirtied many beaches with sand as white as sugar. On the East Coast, dozens of beaches are closed thanks to pollution. All that garbage washes up on beaches and states spend millions to clean up beaches, but it never stops, a tide of plastic, old tires, fishermen's nets, and all kinds of human garbage. The famous incident where a family went to a beach in New Jersey and sat on the sand and got stuck by hypodermic needles that washed up on shore is remembered by many here.
There are places where beaches are safe, the water clean, the scenery breathtaking and beautiful. Most are. But the rising number of beaches where swimming is prohibited because of pollution has alarmed the public. All authorities can do is warn the population to avoid this or that beach and to stay away from water that is smelly, looks dirty, or where there are industrial or sewage pipes nearby.
For the once abundant variety of sea life near beaches, all the pollution has also caused species die offs, and harm to the coastal underwater ecosystem. That means those who love to go fishing are often advised not to eat what they catch with mercury and other levels of human industrial heavy metals in their flesh at levels considered dangerous.
Everyone loves the beach. The warm sun, the pounding but soothing sound of the waves, the smell of an ocean breeze, the fresh seafood, a recipe for relaxation. But these days, it isn't always safe. The Chambers of Commerce which depend on the tens of millions of dollars Americans spend at the beach would have the public believe beaches are safe. But the facts are no longer in dispute.
America's beaches are getting worse - and the people responsible for keeping them safe and clean, the bureaucrats in Washington are doing far less than what is needed. The oceans are being used as a huge garbage dump and the pleasure of enjoying a day at the beach in safety is fleeting.
Written and presented by Mike Kellerman in Washington.
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