The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that up to 3.5million people become ill from contact with raw sewage from sanitary sewer overflows each year, and that number could even be higher since many people who become ill after swimming in polluted water are unaware of the underlying cause of their symptoms, and it often goes unreported.
The NRDC has called on the EPA to revise the new water quality criteria it has been developing, which the non-profit claims would leave beach-goers even less protected than in 1986, when the current standards were adopted.
The draft criteria, which are expected to be finalized this coming October, are based on what EPA has determined is an acceptable gastrointestinal illness risk of 3.6 per cent.
According to NRDC, that means the agency deems it acceptable for one in 28 swimmers to become ill with gastroenteritis from swimming in water that just meets its proposed water quality criteria.
The thought of having a 1/28 chance of getting the stomach flu is not something I'd want to gamble. The stomach flu is horrible.
My cousin and I both picked up a stomach virus (we think) from swimming in Lake Erie when we were kids. My cousin's brother didn't get it, though, and he was in the water too. It make the five hour trip home a nightmare, and neither of us wishes to swim in a lake anymore. My parents ended up getting the virus too. However, his brother who swam in the lake with us didn't get it. He doesn't like to swim in lakes anymore either, though, after he got an ear infection after swimming in a lake on a Boy Scout's trip. Anyway, here's the list for all of you who may be considering swimming at these beaches:
AMERICA'S DIRTIEST BEACHES
California: Avalon Beach in Los Angeles County (3 of 5 monitored sections)
California: Doheny State Beach in Orange County (3 of 6 monitored sections)
Illinois: Winnetka Elder Park Beach in Cook County
Illinois: North Point Marina North Beach in Lake County
Louisiana: Constance Beach in Cameron Parish
Louisiana: Gulf Breeze in Cameron Parish
Louisiana: Little Florida in Cameron Parish
Louisiana: Long Beach in Cameron Parish
Louisiana: Rutherford Beach in Cameron Parish
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
Ohio: Euclid State Park in Cuyahoga County
Ohio: Villa Angela State Park in Cuyahoga County
Wisconsin: South Shore Beach in Milwaukee County
I think also that you will find these sewer beaches are located smack dab in the center of districts which support Obama and his movement of liberal fascists.
There is no such thing as “stomach flu.”
Its proper name is gastroenteritis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroenteritis
Ontario Beach in Monroe County NY is adjacent to the outflow of the Genessee River immediately after it flows through the city of Rochester. The older houses are connected directly to the river with predictable results. But there is an outstanding merry-go-round at the beach.
I’d be interested in seeing the tests for Hanauma Bay, HI.
LLS
Who knew...??
Here’s evidence that this whole exercise is 100% worthless:
Monmouth 7th Ave. (Belmar) 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% once a week yes yes
Monmouth Sylvania (Avon) 5.0% 5.6% 0.0% once a week yes yes
Belmar gets 5 stars, Sylvania 2 stars. The 2 test points appear to be .8 miles from each other.
What a POS “study”.
i live near coney island. how is that not atop the list?
Yet another case of an advocacy group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, issuing a press release and having it treated as “news”.
In Santa Cruz, CA, they close beaches due to "coliform bacteria." Of course, the implication is that the source is human. The problem with that idea is that it is more likely due to the harbor seals nearby and the sea lion colony from up the coast. Of course, the bureaucrats don't measure those sources, because they're "Natural." I am told that the algae plume from Ano Nuevo beach is visible from the air.
I grew up right next to those two Ohio beaches and went swimming just about every day in the summer in the 60s. The storm water went into the sewage plant and it couldn’t handle the load, so the overflow just dumped into the lake. After storms there were turds floating in the water. We just dodged them. Often there were little unidentified white things about the size of a match head all over the water surface. If you got a mouthful, just spit them out.
Funny thing is that none of us ever got sick.
Avalon is ON Catalina Island. I’m not sure the town has any other sewer but the ocean. It is known as the dirtiest beach. I guess the island has to figure out some other way. Also, it’s the easiest destination for all the LA / OC yacht owners and who knows if they dump their waste appropriately either?
“...a non-profit environmental group...”
No point wasting time reading anything that follows.
No Texas beaches among them.