A new analysis details widespread bacterial contamination at U.S. beaches, with more than half of the tested sites exceeding a federal safety threshold at least once in 2018. The report, published Tuesday by think tanks Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group, highlights the threat that urban runoff, sewage overflows and industrial livestock operations pose to America’s shorelines and public health. “All too often, our beaches have pollution that puts swimmers at risk,” John Rumpler, a co-author of the report and director of Environment America’s clean water program, told HuffPost. “That’s just totally unacceptable.” Of the more than 4,500 beaches sampled in 2018, nearly 60% had potentially unsafe levels of disease-causing fecal bacteria on at least one day, according to the findings. A total of 605 sites, or approximately 13%, had elevated bacteria counts at least 25% of the days they were tested.

ASSOCIATED PRESS A swimming advisory posted at Miami's Hobie Beach in July 2016.

The report analyzed sampling data submitted to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council by more than 40 federal, state and local agencies, and includes sites in 29 states along the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Great Lakes and Puerto Rico. As a benchmark, the organizations used the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Beach Action Value,” a “precautionary” threshold established in 2012 to help states and territories decide when to issue beach advisories or closures. A site was deemed “unsafe” for water recreation if levels of Enterococci and E. coli bacteria ― two common indicators of fecal contamination ― failed to meet the EPA standard. The lowest success rate was in the Gulf Coast region, where 85% of sites were contaminated at least one day in 2018. Forty-eight percent of beaches tested along the East Coast saw potentially unsafe levels on at least one day, compared to 67% along the West Coast and 75% in the Great Lakes. In Illinois, all 19 beaches that were tested failed to meet the EPA benchmark at least once in 2018, with a site at South Shore Beach in southern Chicago tallying elevated bacteria counts on 38 days. Cole Park, a bayside park in Corpus Christi, Texas, was potentially hazardous for swimming on 52 days. Nationwide, contaminated water resulted in 871 beach closures and more than 10,000 advisories last year, according to the findings.

Environment America Research & Policy Center/Frontier Group