June, 27 2012, 04:36pm EDT

NRDC Annual Beach Report: Closing & Advisory Days Hit Third-Highest Level in Two Decades
Report Awards a Dozen 5-Star Ratings, Exposes Top 15 “Repeat Offenders” & Flags Emerging Threats to Swimmers
WASHINGTON
America's beaches saw the third-highest number of closing and advisory days in more than two decades last year, confirming the nation's seashores continue to suffer from stormwater runoff and sewage pollution that can make people sick and harm coastal economies, according to the 22nd annual beachwater quality report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Our beaches are plagued by a sobering legacy of water pollution," said NRDC senior attorney Jon Devine. "Luckily, today more than ever, we know that much of this filth is preventable and we can turn the tide against water pollution. By establishing better beachwater quality standards and putting untapped 21st century solutions in place - we can make a day at the beach as carefree as it should be, and safeguard America's vital tourism economies."
In its 22nd year, NRDC's annual report - Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches - analyzes government data on beachwater testing results from 2011 at more than 3,000 beach testing locations nationwide. The report examines the pollution realities that loom at America's beaches and calls for a timely, concerted effort to avert future beachwater pollution.
The report confirms that last year, our nation's beachwater continued to suffer from serious contamination and pollutants by human and animal waste. As a result, America's beaches issued the third-highest number of closings or advisories in the report's history last year, with the second-highest number occurring just the year before.
The report provides a 5-star rating guide to 200 of the nation's popular beaches, evaluating them for water quality and best practices for testing and public notification. This year, the report awards a dozen beaches with a 5-star rating, as well as highlights the top 15 "Repeat Offenders," which repeatedly exhibit chronically high bacteria counts.
For the first time this year, NRDC's report includes a zip code searchable map of more than 3,000 beaches nationwide, making it easier than ever for users to check the water quality, monitoring, closing and swimming advisory information at their local beaches. Find it here: https://www.nrdc.org/beaches.
This year, Testing the Waters identifies two critical actions that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can take to better protect people at the beach. First, EPA should reconsider its proposed recommended standards for beachwater quality, which leave beachgoers inadequately protected and unnecessarily exposed to dangerous pathogens in the water. Second, because polluted runoff is the biggest known source of pollution that causes swimming advisories or beach closings, EPA must reform and rigorously enforce the national requirements that govern sources of polluted stormwater to ensure that runoff is controlled using innovative green infrastructure solutions.
THE NATION'S 12 5-STAR BEACHES
For several years, NRDC has issued star ratings to each of the 200 popular beaches around the country, based on indicators of beachwater quality, monitoring frequency, and public notification of contamination. There were twelve beaches last year that received the 5-star rating:
- California: Newport Beach in Orange County (2 of 3 monitored sections)
- Newport Beach - 38th Street
- Newport Beach - 52nd/53rd Street
- California: Bolsa Chica Beach in Orange County
- California: Huntington State Beach in Orange County
- Alabama: Gulf Shores Public Beach in Baldwin County
- Alabama: Gulf State Park Pavilion in Baldwin County
- Delaware: Dewey Beach in Sussex County
- Maryland: Ocean City at Beach 6 in Worcester County
- Minnesota: Park Point Franklin Park / 13th Street South Beach Park Point in St. Louis County
- Minnesota: Lafayette Community Club Beach in St. Louis County
- New Hampshire: Hampton Beach State Park in Rockingham County
- New Hampshire: Wallis Sands Beach in Rockingham County
- Texas: South Padre Island in Cameron County
The star system awards up to five stars to each select popular beach for exceptionally low violation rates and strong testing and safety practices. The criteria include: testing more than once a week, notifying the public promptly when tests reveal bacteria levels violating health standards, and posting closings and advisories both online and at the beach.
THE NATION'S 15 "REPEAT OFFENDERS"
Over the last five years of this report, sections of 15 U.S. beaches have stood out as having persistent contamination problems, with water samples violating public health standards more than 25 percent of the time for each year from 2007 to 2011:
- California: Avalon Beach in Los Angeles County (3 of 5 monitored sections):
- Avalon Beach - West of Green Pleasure Pier (50 feet)
- Avalon Beach - West of Green Pleasure Pier (100 feet)
- Avalon Beach - East of Green Pleasure Pier
- California: Doheny State Beach in Orange County (3 of 6 monitored sections):
- Doheny State Beach - North of San Juan Creek
- Doheny State Beach - Surfzone at Outfall
- Doheny State Beach - 1000' South Outfall
- Illinois: Winnetka Elder Park Beach in Cook County
- Illinois: North Point Marina North Beach in Lake County
- Louisiana: Constance Beach in Cameron County
- Louisiana: Gulf Breeze in Cameron County
- Louisiana: Little Florida in Cameron County
- Louisiana: Long Beach in Cameron County
- Louisiana: Rutherford Beach in Cameron County
- New Jersey: Beachwood Beach West in Ocean County
- New York: Woodlawn Beach - Woodlawn Beach State Park in Erie County
- New York: Ontario Beach in Monroe County
It is important to note that, due to their size, some of these beaches have multiple sections that are tested for water quality, and in some instances only certain sections of a beach qualified for the repeat offender list. Where possible, multi-segment beaches have been indicated on this list, along with the specific sections of those beaches identified as repeat offenders.
NATIONAL FINDINGS - 2011:
Closing and advisory days in 2011 at America's beaches reached the third-highest level in the 22 years since NRDC began compiling this report at 23,481 days. This was a 3 percent decrease from 2010; that year marked the second-highest number of closings and advisories. More than two-thirds of the closings and advisories in 2011 were issued because testing revealed indicator bacteria levels in the water violated public health standards, potentially indicating the presence of human or animal waste. Stormwater runoff was the primary known source of known pollution nationwide, consistent with past years, indicating a lack of needed progress on the problem at the national level. Sewage overflows were also a contributor.
This year's report found that water quality at America's beaches remained largely stable, with 8 percent of beachwater samples nationwide violating public health standards in 2011, compared to 8 percent the previous year and 7 percent for the four years prior.
The Great Lakes region had the highest violation rate of beachwater standards -- 11 percent of samples in 2011. The Delmarva had the lowest rate of samples -- 4 percent violated standards. In between were Western states (8 percent), New England (7 percent), New York-New Jersey coast (7 percent), and the Gulf Coast (6 percent).
Individual states with the highest violation rates of reported samples in 2011 were Louisiana (29 percent), Ohio (22 percent), and Illinois (12 percent). Those with the lowest rates of contamination last year were Delaware (1 percent), New Hampshire (1 percent), North Carolina (3 percent), New Jersey (3 percent), Florida (3 percent), Virginia (4 percent) and Hawaii (4 percent).
Under the federal Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act, states regularly test their beachwater for bacteria found in human and animal waste. These bacteria often indicate the presence of pathogens. When beach managers determine that water contamination violated health standards - or in some cases when a state suspects levels would violate standards, such as after heavy rain - they notify the public through beach closures or advisories.
Beachwater pollution nationwide causes a range of waterborne illnesses in swimmers including stomach flu, skin rashes, pinkeye, ear, nose and throat problems, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments, neurological disorders and other serious health problems. For senior citizens, small children and people with weak immune systems, the results can be fatal.
EPA RECREATIONAL WATER QUALITY CRITERIA ALLOW 1-IN-28 TO GET SICK:
EPA is responsible for ensuring that recreational waters are safe for swimming. One way of doing so is by establishing and implementing comprehensive federal standards that are protective of public health. These standards, called "recreational water quality criteria," have not been updated since 1986. And in 2000, the BEACH Act required that EPA modernize standards to better protect beach users from illnesses caused by pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, in polluted waterways.
The draft criteria that EPA responded with (and is proposing to finalize by October 15) miss a critical opportunity to better protect beachgoers from the dangers of swimming in polluted waters. In fact, EPA recommended bacteria levels as "safe" in recreational waters even though the agency estimated they would permit 1 in 28 swimmers to become ill with gastrointestinal sicknesses such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Additionally, EPA does not adequately consider the risks of other health effects, such as rashes and ear, eye, and sinus infections, all of which are commonly experienced by beachgoers.
In order to address these flaws, EPA should revise the level of acceptable risk when it finalizes its new standards this fall, so that they are more protective of public health, including safeguarding against other, non-gastrointestinal illnesses, like rash and ear infections. EPA should also utilize the best available science and improved testing methods when developing the final criteria.
"Clean beaches are vital to our local, regional and national coastal economies," said Steve Fleischli, Acting Director of the Water Program at NRDC. "This summer provides a crucial turning point and chance to urge EPA to put people first and strengthen water quality standards. If we want to keep our oceans and tourism industries thriving and healthy, we need our local and federal leaders to step up and adopt smart policies that protect our water, our health, and our beach businesses."
Top governmental leaders, environmental and science agencies, and more than 10,000 Americans have already submitted public comments to EPA, expressing concern that this proposal, if approved without addressing such flaws, will allow an unacceptably high risk of illness.
LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS:
EPA estimates that more than 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater make their way into our surface waters each year, and there are hundreds of billions of gallons of wastewater, which includes sewage and stormwater, released in combined sewer overflows annually.
The best way to keep this pollution out of America's beachwater is to prevent it from the start by investing in smarter, greener infrastructure on land, like porous pavement, green roofs, parks, roadside plantings and rain barrels. Green infrastructure addresses stormwater pollution by stopping rain where it falls, preventing the rain from carrying runoff from dirty streets to our beaches, and instead storing it or letting it filter back into the ground naturally.
Green infrastructure solutions reduce the need for end-of-line stormwater treatment, prevent overloaded sewage systems and triggered overflows, and thereby turn rainwater from a huge pollution liability into a plentiful, local water supply resource. These sustainable water practices on land not only restore the health of local waterways and beaches, they also beautify neighborhoods, cool and cleanse the air, reduce asthma and heat-related illnesses, save on heating and cooling energy costs, boost economies and support American jobs.
Cities nationwide are already embracing these innovative stormwater management solutions. Now, our federal government has significant opportunities to clean up water at America's beaches by incentivizing green infrastructure in communities nationwide. EPA has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand the robust deployment of green infrastructure by reforming its national requirements designed to tackle urban runoff. A proposed water pollution rule for stormwater sources, such as new and existing development projects, is expected to be announced by EPA in the coming year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- Full report and Zip-code searchable map:https://www.nrdc.org/beaches
- The 5-star rating guide to 200 popular beaches: https://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/200beaches.asp
- Broadcast-quality video of solutions for cleaner beachwater: https://vimeo.com/album/262783
- Tips for a safe trip to the beach: https://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/gttw.asp
- Jon Devine's blog and more NRDC voices on Testing the Waters: Why We Need New Protections from Runoff Pollution
NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.
(212) 727-2700LATEST NEWS
At Least 95 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attacks Including Massacres at Beach Café, Aid Points
"I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned," said one eyewitness to a strike on the popular al-Baqa Café.
Jun 30, 2025
Israeli forces ramped up their genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip Monday, killing at least 95 Palestinians in attacks including massacres at a seaside café and a humanitarian aid distribution center and bombings of five school shelters housing displaced families and a hospital where refugees were sheltering in tents.
An Israeli strike targeted the al-Baqa Café in western Gaza City, one of the few operating businesses remaining after 633 days of Israel's obliteration of the coastal strip and a popular gathering place for journalists, university students, artists, and others seeking reliable internet service and a respite from nearly 21 months of near-relentless attacks.
Medical sources said at least 33 civilians were killed and nearly 50 others wounded in the massacre, including footballer Mustafa Abu Amira, photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab—who survived an earlier Israeli airstrike and is reportedly the 227th journalists killed by Israel since October 2023—and prominent artist Frans Al-Salmi, whose final painting depicting a young Palestinian woman killed by Israeli forces resembles photographs of its slain creator posted on social media after her killing.
Warning: Photos shows image of death
Survivor Ali Abu Ateila toldThe Associated Press that the café was crowded with women and children at the time of the attack.
"Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake," he said.
Another survivor of the massacre told Britain's Sky News: "All I see is blood... Unbelievable. People come here to take a break from what they see inside Gaza. They come westward to breathe."
Eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab toldAgence France-Presse that a "huge explosion shook the area."
"I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned," he said. "It was a scene that made your skin crawl."
Witnesses and officials said Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops opened fire on Palestinians seeking food and other humanitarian aid from a U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point in southern Gaza, killing 15 people amid near-daily massacres of aid-seekers.
"We were targeted by artillery," survivor Monzer Hisham Ismail told The Associated Press. Another survivor, Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar, told the AP that Israeli troops "fired at us indiscriminately." Mokheimar was shot in the leg, another man who tried to rescue him was also shot.
IDF troops have killed nearly 600 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded more than 4,000 others over the past month, with Israeli military officers and soldiers saying they were ordered to deliberately fire on civilians in search of food and other necessities amid Israel's weaponized starvation of Gaza.
Another 13 people were reportedly killed Monday when IDF warplanes bombed an aid warehouse in the Zeitoun quarter of southern Gaza City, according to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital officials cited by The Palestine Chronicle. IDF warplanes also reportedly bombed five schools housing displaced families, three of them in Zeitoun. Israeli forces also bombed the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinian families are sheltering in tents. It was reportedly the 12th time the hospital has been bombed since the start of the war.
The World Health Organization has documented more than 700 attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities since October 2023. Most of Gaza's hospitals are out of service due to Israeli attacks, some of which have been called genocidal by United Nations experts.
Israel's overall behavior in the war is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 204,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried under rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose casualty figures have been found to be generally accurate and even a likely undercount by peer-reviewed studies.
The intensified IDF attacks follow Israel's issuance of new forced evacuation orders amid the ongoing Operation Gideon's Chariots, an ongoing offensive which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Jewish recolonization as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'We Cannot Be Silent': Tlaib Leads 19 US Lawmakers Demanding Israel Stop Starving Gaza
"This current blockade is starving Palestinian civilians in violation of international law, and the militarization of food will not help."
Jun 30, 2025
As the death toll from Israel's forced starvation of Palestinians continues to rise amid the ongoing U.S.-backed genocidal assault and siege of the Gaza Strip, Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday led 18 congressional colleagues in a letter demanding that the Trump administration push for an immediate cease-fire, an end to the Israeli blockade, and a resumption of humanitarian aid into the embattled coastal enclave.
"We are outraged at the weaponization of humanitarian aid and escalating use of starvation as a weapon of war by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people in Gaza," Tlaib (D-Mich.)—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—and the other lawmakers wrote in their letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "For over three months, Israeli authorities have blocked nearly all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, fueling mass starvation and suffering among over 2 million people. This follows over 600 days of bombardment, destruction, and forced displacement, and nearly two decades of siege."
"According to experts, 100% of the population is now at risk of famine, and nearly half a million civilians, most of them children, are facing 'catastrophic' conditions of 'starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels,'" the legislators noted. "These actions are a direct violation of both U.S. and international humanitarian law, with devastating human consequences."
Gaza officials have reported that hundreds of Palestinians—including at least 66 children—have died in Gaza from malnutrition and lack of medicine since Israel ratcheted up its siege in early March. Earlier this month, the United Nations Children's Fund warned that childhood malnutrition was "rising at an alarming rate," with 5,119 children under the age of 5 treated for the life-threatening condition in May alone. Of those treated children, 636 were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, the most lethal form of the condition.
Meanwhile, nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 others have been injured as Israeli occupation forces carry out near-daily massacres of desperate people seeking food and other humanitarian aid at or near distribution sites run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel Defense Forces officers and troops have said that they were ordered to shoot and shell aid-seeking Gazans, even when they posed no threat.
"This is not aid," the lawmakers' letter argues. "UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has warned that, under the GHF, 'aid distribution has become a death trap.' We cannot allow this to continue."
"We strongly oppose any efforts to dismantle the existing U.N.-led humanitarian coordination system in Gaza, which is ready to resume operations immediately once the blockade is lifted," the legislators wrote. "Replacing this system with the GHF further restricts lifesaving aid and undermines the work of long-standing, trusted humanitarian organizations. The result of this policy will be continued starvation and famine."
"We cannot be silent. This current blockade is starving Palestinian civilians in violation of international law, and the militarization of food will not help," the lawmakers added. "We demand an immediate end to the blockade, an immediate resumption of unfettered humanitarian aid entry into Gaza, the restoration of U.S. funding to UNRWA, and an immediate and lasting cease-fire. Any other path forward is a path toward greater hunger, famine, and death."
Since launching the retaliatory annihilation of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed at least 56,531 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,600 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which also says over 14,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Upward of 2 million Gazans have been forcibly displaced, often more than once.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated a call for a cease-fire deal that would secure the release of the remaining 22 living Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas.
In addition to Tlaib, the letter to Rubio was signed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Al Green (Texas), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Henry "Hank"Johnson (Ga.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Mark Pocan (Wisc.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Paul Tonko (N.Y.), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.).
Keep ReadingShow Less
Biden National Security Adviser Among Those Crafting 'Project 2029' Policy Agenda for Democrats
"Jake Sullivan's been a critical decision-maker in every Democratic catastrophe of the last decade," said one observer. "Why is he still in the inner circle?"
Jun 30, 2025
Amid the latest battle over the direction the Democratic Party should move in, a number of strategists and political advisers from across the center-left's ideological spectrum are assembling a committee to determine the policy agenda they hope will be taken up by a Democratic successor to President Donald Trump.
Some of the names on the list of people crafting the agenda—named Project 2029, an echo of the far-right Project 2025 blueprint Trump is currently enacting—left progressives with deepened concerns that party insiders have "learnt nothing" and "forgotten nothing" from the president's electoral victories against centrist Democratic candidates over the past decade, as one economist said.
The project is being assembled by former Democratic speechwriter Andrei Cherny, now co-founder of the policy journal Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and includes Jake Sullivan, a former national security adviser under the Biden administration; Jim Kessler, founder of the centrist think tank Third Way; and Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and longtime adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Progressives on the advisory board for the project include economist Justin Wolfers and former Roosevelt Institute president Felicia Wong, but antitrust expert Hal Singer said any policy agenda aimed at securing a Democratic victory in the 2028 election "needs way more progressives."
As The New York Times noted in its reporting on Project 2029, the panel is being convened amid extensive infighting regarding how the Democratic Party can win back control of the White House and Congress.
After democratic socialist and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani's (D-36) surprise win against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week in New York City's mayoral primary election—following a campaign with a clear-eyed focus on making childcare, rent, public transit, and groceries more affordable—New York City has emerged as a battleground in the fight. Influential Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have so far refused to endorse him and attacked him for his unequivocal support for Palestinian rights.
Progressives have called on party leaders to back Mamdani, pointing to his popularity with young voters, and accept that his clear message about making life more affordable for working families resonated with Democratic constituents.
But speaking to the Times, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake exemplified how many of the party's strategists have insisted that candidates only need to package their messages to voters differently—not change the messages to match the political priorities of Mamdani and other popular progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
"We didn't lack policies," Lake told the Times of recent national elections. "But we lacked a functioning narrative to communicate those policies."
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have drawn crowds of thousands in red districts this year at Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy rallies—another sign, progressives say, that voters are responding to politicians who focus on billionaires' outsized control over the U.S. political system and on economic justice.
Project 2029's inclusion of strategists like Kessler, who declared economic populism "a dead end for Democrats" in 2013, demonstrates "the whole problem [with Democratic leadership] in a nutshell," said Jonathan Cohn of Progressive Mass—as does Sullivan's seat on the advisory board.
As national security adviser to President Joe Biden, Sullivan played a key role in the administration's defense and funding of Israel's assault on Gaza, which international experts and human rights groups have said is a genocide.
"Jake Sullivan's been a critical decision-maker in every Democratic catastrophe of the last decade: Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Israel/Gaza War, and the 2024 Joe Biden campaign," said Nick Field of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. "Why is he still in the inner circle?"
"Jake Sullivan is shaping domestic policy for the next Democratic administration," he added. "Who is happy with the Biden foreign policy legacy?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular