WASHINGTON  Beaches across the country closed or posted warnings to swimmers a record number of times last year because of high levels of harmful bacteria, evidence that communities should do more to keep vacation beaches clean and safe, according to a national environmental group.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's annual "Testing the Waters" guide portrays the nation's favorite beaches as increasingly susceptible to contamination from storm water runoff, sewage spills and other sources of pollution.

"We are still not doing everything possible to protect the public," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water Project. "Pollutants continue to foul our waters, threatening human and ecological health."

PUBLIC HEALTH: Testing always comes too late

The NRDC report, to be released Tuesday, analyzed data collected by state and local government officials and compiled by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The report, considered the most authoritative analysis of government testing at ocean and freshwater beaches, shows just how vulnerable beaches are to pollutants flushed through storm pipes, many of which empty directly into the ankle-deep water where children play.

"You could hardly design a more effective way of delivering pollution to the beach," Stoner said.

The group found that:

• More than 1,600 beaches temporarily closed or posted a swimming advisory last year due to bacteria levels that exceeded federal public health standards.

• Water samples from 92 beaches in 19 states exceeded public health standards 25% of the time or more.

• The number of days beaches were closed or advisories were posted increased 28% to a record high of 25,643 nationwide last year. (Each day any beach is closed counts as one closure day, so if 1,000 beaches were each closed one day, that equals 1,000 closure days.) Much of the increase was due to heavy rains in Hawaii that caused a dramatic increase in contaminated storm water.

• Not counting Hawaii, the number of closure and advisory days nationwide was up 7% last year, still a record for the 17 years NRDC has been tracking beach water quality. It was the second straight record year.

• Storm water runoff is by far the most significant source of contamination. It was cited as the reason for 10,597 closing or advisory days in 2006, nearly double the number from 2005.

•Of the more than 100,000 water samples taken at beaches last year, about 7% exceeded federal standards for bacteria.

• Closure and advisory days were up more than 90% on the New York-New Jersey beaches and the West Coast, largely due to storm water runoff and sewage system overflows. Closure and advisory days decreased in the Southeast and Gulf Coast because drought reduced storm water runoff.

EPA: Beaches 'in good shape.'

Government officials note that swimming at most coastal and Great Lakes beaches is safe most of the time, and the data confirm that.

NRDC's cautionary report stands in sharp contrast to the EPA's more optimistic assessment, which pronounced the nation's recreational shorelines "in good shape" at the start of this summer.

"We're seeing progress in keeping America's beaches clean, but significant challenges remain," said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA assistant administrator for water. "We want to move from a B-plus to an A."

EPA officials note that monitored beaches experienced contamination-related closures or swimming advisories only 5% of available beach days last year. And they say more beaches in more states are being tested since a federal beach water quality monitoring program was created in 2000.

Still, swimmers are often one rainstorm or sewage overflow away from being exposed to contaminated water, much of the time unknowingly.

That's because not all beaches are monitored, test results of water samples can take up to 24 hours, and officials aren't required to notify swimmers of higher-than-recommended bacteria levels.

Hard to say who got sick

Several studies have established a connection between swimming in water contaminated with human or animal waste and illness, including ear, nose, throat and eye problems, gastroenteritis, hepatitis and respiratory ailments.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review for 2003 and 2004 reported 62 outbreaks of waterborne diseases associated with recreational water — not just beaches but also swimming pools and water parks — in 26 states and Guam. A total 2,698 people fell ill, including 58 who were hospitalized and one who died.

Data gathered as part of a collaboration among the CDC and other agencies reveal gradual increases in gastroenteritis outbreaks associated with recreational swimming.

Most studies are localized. A 2003 EPA study found that 10% to 14% of swimmers surveyed at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan and a beach on Lake Erie near Cleveland reported getting a gastrointestinal illness. Both beaches were affected by discharges from nearby waste treatment plants.

Last fall, several surfers reported severe sinus infections after spending time in the water near Rehoboth Beach, Del., where a storm water pipe funnels water from a small inland lake with a large goose population.

"I got a call from a buddy of mine who surfs, and he said he had the worst sinus infection of his life," said Mark Carter, a local kayak instructor and chairman of the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a conservation group. "I put out a little notice and about 10 people responded saying they had gotten ill."

Assessing exactly how many people get sick from swimming in polluted beach water is difficult because it's rare for beachgoers to cite that as a source of illness, according to health officials.

"It's a nebulous phenomenon," said Michael Beach, acting associate director for healthy water at the CDC.

The EPA is studying water quality and illness rates this year among swimmers in Alabama, California and Rhode Island as it tries to update bacteria standards in place for more than 20 years.

Monitoring on the rise

Each year, the EPA gives about $10 million to states for a federal beach water-quality monitoring program Congress created in 2000.

All 30 coastal and Great Lakes states now participate in the program. More than 3,500 beaches are monitored today, up from 2,182 in 2000, according to the NRDC.

That's still not every beach. State and local officials test the water at beaches most popular with swimmers and those most likely to experience bacterial contamination due to storm water outfalls or nearby sewage treatment plants.

Local and state officials decide how often to test. Some do it daily, others once a week.

All states have adopted the EPA's standards for unhealthy bacteria levels or use their own tougher standards. Under EPA standards, beach water is considered unhealthy when it contains a specified amount of enterococcus or E. coli.

Those levels are designed to make sure no more than eight people in 1,000 become ill after swimming in freshwater and no more than 19 in 1,000 become ill after swimming in salt water.

But even at beaches where the threshold is exceeded, the federal government has no authority to require states and local governments to ban swimming or post advisories.

And not everyone does. In Corpus Christi, Texas, for example, city officials have a policy of keeping warning signs off local beaches, said Jim Suydam, a spokesman for the Texas General Land Office.

Such policies are potentially hazardous, said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, a Los Angeles environmental group. He said warning signs should be required when the public's health is at risk.

"Inadequate monitoring and poor public notification can lead to millions of swimmers unknowingly exposed to unacceptable health risks," Gold said a congressional hearing in July.

Congress is considering increasing funding for beach water quality monitoring and requiring states to quickly adopt new standards and testing technology that would alert beach officials right away if water contains harmful levels of bacteria.

The EPA is testing new DNA-based technology that can offer results within three hours of when a water sample is lifted from the surf.

READERS: Will this make you change any of your upcoming beach plans? Let us know.

Enlarge By Heather Wines, Gannett News Service Visitors walk the shore at Virginia Beach, where 24 testing sites are monitored once a week to guard against contamination. A new report finds that the nation's beaches are increasingly vulnerable to contamination.

Brad DeLashmutt, 33, an environmental specialist for the Virginia Department of Health, collects water samples in Virginia Beach.



By Heather Wines, Gannett News Service