August 2007 Testing the Waters A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches SEVENTEENTH EDITION Authors Mark Dorfman Nancy Stoner Natural Resources Defense Council Project Design and Development David Beckman About NRDC The Natural Resources Defense Council is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org. Acknowledgments NRDC wishes to acknowledge the support of The Davis Family Trust for Clean Water, John Dawson, Sarah K. deCoizart Article Tenth Perpetual Charitable Trust, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Inc., The Joyce Foundation, The Lawrence Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Prospect Hill Foundation, The Mary Jean Smeal Clean Water Fund, and Victoria Foundation, Inc. We also thank our more than 650,000 members, without whom our work to protect U.S. coasts, as well as our other wide ranging environmental programs, would not be possible. NRDC would like to thank Tonya McLean and Kirsten Sinclair Rosselot for their research assistance. Thanks also to Rita Barol, Kathryn McGrath, Shanti Menon, Lisa Whiteman, Auden Shim, and Megan Lew for their assistance in producing this report on NRDC’s website and to Julia Bovey, Serena Ingres, Elizabeth Heyd, Jenny Powers, Daniel Hinerfeld, Hamlet Paoletti, and Jon Coifman from our communications team for developing our release strategy. Finally, thanks to Henry Henderson, Sarah Chasis, David Beckman, Michele Mehta, Andrew Wetzler for releasing the report for NRDC this year and Natalie Roy and Christy Leavitt for arranging for releases by chapters of the Public Interest Research Group and the Clean Water Network. NRDC President: Frances Beinecke NRDC Executive Director: Peter Lehner NRDC Publications Manager: Lisa Goffredi Contributing Editors: Anthony Clark, Lily Bowers, Jacob Wascalus NRDC Director of Communications: Phil Gutis Production: Bonnie Greenfield NRDC Director of Marketing and Operations: Alexandra Kennaugh Copyright 2007 by the Natural Resources Defense Council. ii Natural Resources Defense Council Table of Contents Executive Summary .........................................................................................................................................................iv National Overview ...........................................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Sources of Beachwater Pollution .....................................................................................................................................14 Chapter 2 Health Risks and Economic Impacts of Beach Pollution.................................................................................................21 Chapter 3 Beachwater Monitoring and Closing/Advisory Practices .................................................................................................33 Chapter 4 Plan of Action ................................................................................................................................................................37 Chapter 5 State Summaries .............................................................................................................................................................42 Alabama Florida Louisiana Minnesota North Carolina South Carolina Alaska Georgia Maine Mississippi Ohio Texas California Hawaii Maryland New Hampshire Oregon Virginia Connecticut Illinois Massachusetts New Jersey Pennsylvania Washington Delaware Indiana Michigan New York Rhode Island Wisconsin Figures Figure 1. Total Closing/Advisory Days, 2000–2006 (excluding extended and permanent) ................................................2 Figure 2. Reported Causes of Closings/Advisoris in 2006 .................................................................................................3 Figure 3. Reported Causes of Closings/Advisories, 2000–2006 .........................................................................................3 Figure 4. Sources of Pollution That Caused Closings/Advisories, 2006 .............................................................................4 Figure 5. Sources of Pollution That Caused Closings/Advisories, 2000–2006 ...................................................................4 Figure 6. Major Pollution Sources Causing Beach Closings/Advisories in 2006 ..............................................................14 Figure 7. Expansion of HAB Problems in the U.S. .........................................................................................................25 Figure 8. Lag Time Associated with Current Water Quality Monitoring and Public Notification Methods .....................26 Tables Table 1. Rank of States by Percent of Tier 1 Beachwater Samples Exceeding the National Standard in 2006 ....................6 Table 2. Tier 1 Beaches with More Than 25 Percent of Samples Exceeding National Standards in 2006, ..........................7 by Percent Exceedance Table 3. U.S. Ocean, Bay, Great Lakes, and Some Freshwater Beach Closings/Advisories, 2000–2006 ...........................12 Table 4. Details on the 62 Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Reported to CDCP: Jan 2003–Dec 2004 .............................22 Table 5. Pathogens and Swimming-Associated Illnesses ..................................................................................................23 Table 6. BEACH Act–Required Beachwater Water Quality Standarrds ...........................................................................26 Table 7. Value of Tourism to Selected Coastal States .......................................................................................................29 Table 8. 2007 Federal BEACH Act Grant Allocations to States and Territories ...............................................................34 Table 9. Number and Percent of Tier 1 Beaches Regularly Monitored in 2006 ...............................................................35 Table 10. Abbreviations Used in Beach Closing/Advisory Tables ....................................................................................44 iii Natural Resources Defense Council Seventeenth Annual Report Executive Summary In 2006 there were more beach closings and advisories than at any other time in the 17 years the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been tracking them. The number of closing and advisory days at ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches jumped 28 percent to more than 25,000, confirming that our nation’s beaches continue to suffer from se- rious water pollution. For the second consecutive year, we were able to determine not only the number of closings and advisories, but also the number of times that each beach violated current public health standards. This year, a curious picture emerged: while the number of closing/advisory days increased, the percent of all samples exceeding national health standards decreased to 7 percent in 2006 from 8 percent in 2005. The culprit is stormwater runoff: the number of closing/advisory days due to stormwater doubled to more than 10,000 in 2006. The structures and infrastructures of our coastal cities and towns The EPA missed its congressionally create the conditions for rain to wash infectious bacteria, vi- mandated deadline to revise the ruses, and parasites into our beachwater. In fact, in many of current public health standards the more populated coastal areas, health officials are so sure that heavy rains will wash sewage, nutrients, and debris into for beachwater quality, which are our coastal recreational waters, that they don’t even wait for outdated and inadequate. the results of monitoring before taking action to protect the public – they close beaches or issue advisories preemptively. In 2006, 79 percent of the closing/advisory days due to stormwater contamination were preemptive. Hawaii, which had record amounts of rain in 2006, accounts for the largest share of preemptive closing/advisory days. CLOSINGS AND ADVISORIES INCREASE AT HIGH-RISK BEACHES For the first time this year, our report puts a special focus on our nation’s highest risk beaches—those with the great- est amount of use and/or proximity to potential pollution sources. This new area of focus is the result of a peer review process NRDC undertook with five professionals from local and state health agencies, academia, and the research com- munity. States must identify their highest risk beaches when they receive federal Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We found that closing/ad- visory days at these so-called “Tier 1” beaches steadily increased at a rate of 3 percent per year from 2004 through 2006. Heavy rains in some areas, more frequent monitoring, and uncontrolled stormwater and sewage pollution appear to be the major factors contributing to the steady increase. Ninety-seven percent of Tier 1 beaches are monitored at least once a week compared to 79 percent of all monitored beaches. POLLUTED WatER HUrts COastaL ECONOMIES Dirty coastal waters not only threaten our health, they hurt our economy. Coastal “tourism and recreation constitute some of the fastest growing business