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Wednesday, August 8, 2001



Beach closings
up 100 percent,
survey reports

An environmental group
wants Bush to put new clean-
water standards into effect


Star-Bulletin staff and wire

WASHINGTON >> Swimmers faced sewage-polluted waters that closed beaches across the nation nearly twice as often last year as the prior year, an environmental group said today.

A survey released by the Natural Resources Defense Council cites 11,270 beach closings and advisories in 2000, with 85 percent due to elevated bacteria counts that exceeded federal swimmer safety standards.

There were 15 days of beach closures and advisories in Hawaii in 2000 compared to two days in 1999, according to the NRDC Web site.

Eight days of the closings were due to flooding from heavy rains in Hilo that caused sewage overflows. Five were due to oil spills on Kauai. The state reported no monitoring samples exceeded the standard last year.

The NRDC says Hawaii has a statewide monitoring program and its bacteria standard is one of the strictest in the nation, but the Clean Water Branch of the Department of Health does not always close a beach if the standard is exceeded. Beach closings and advisories because of sewage spills are instituted by counties.

The group wants the Bush administration to implement new federal water quality standards, announced just before President Clinton left office, aimed at cleaning up coastal pollution and reducing storm water and agriculture runoff polluting about 21,000 lakes, ponds, streams and rivers across the country.

"They've been put on hold indefinitely," Nancy Stoner, director of the NRDC's clean water program, said today. "It's time to clean up our impaired waters."

While the high bacteria levels were mainly due to increased rain and more frequent municipal and state monitoring, the council's 11th annual report also points to a 40 percent jump in the number of beaches reporting pollution problems from an unknown source.

Two-fifths of U.S. waters are still too polluted for swimming, fishing and supporting aquatic life, the group says.

Just eight beach areas, all in Connecticut and Massachusetts, were awarded high praise for pollution control.

The survey singles out two states, Louisiana and Oregon, as "beach bums" for a second year in a row for failing to regularly monitor their coastlines. Texas and Washington state had been in that category last year but were removed for having limited monitoring.

In the past year, 11 states -- Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas -- initiated or expanded monitoring programs.

California, Massachusetts, and Florida also passed legislation requiring better beach monitoring and public notification.

More than a third of the beach closures and advisories -- including those at popular spots like San Diego, St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, Jones Beach in New York and Key West and Miami Beach in Florida -- were associated with sewage or polluted runoff, the group says.



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