Jul 29, 2008 12:56 pm US/Eastern
S. Fla. Beaches Rate High In Beach Quality Report
Report Comes From NRDC
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
There's no mistaking the natural beauty of South Florida's beaches. People from around the world travel here to enjoy them but where are the safest and cleanest beaches in the country?
The answer came Tuesday with the release of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) annual beach water report, "Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches."
In South Florida, it's good news. Miami-Dade and Broward beaches are on the high end of the spectrum. Overall, beaches in South Florida rated high for keeping fecal matter, pollutants and contaminants out of the water.
All Broward beaches and most of Miami-Dade's beaches had fewer than 5-percent of beach water samples to exceed the National Daily Standard.
"This area in South Florida has done a very good job with being able to prevent storm water runoff. The City of Miami Beach should be complimented on the projects they've done on the Venetian Causeway and then over on South Beach where they are creating large cisterns to hold the storm water runoff when we have these very strong deluges of rain that overwhelm the wastewater treatment systems," said TJ Marshall from the Florida Coastal and Ocean Coalition.
Nationwide, the report found that pollution-related closings and health advisories at U.S. beaches remained high in 2007. The reported number of closings and advisories made 2007 the second-worst for beaches since NRDC began tracking these events 18 years ago.
Across the United States, ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches reported more than 22,500 days of closings and advisories in 2007. As in 2006, heavy rainfall that washes sewage, debris and other pollutants from cities and towns into coastal waters continued to be a major cause, and NRDC expects the trend to persist. Stormwater carries pollution from the streets to the beach without treatment whenever it rains. Unknown sources of pollution caused more than 8,000 closing and advisory days.
In addition, sewage spills and overflows were a growing problem in 2007, the report shows, with the number of closings and advisories blamed on sewage more than tripled to 4,097 from 2006 to 2007. For the full report, go to
www.nrdc.org/beaches.
"Some families can't enjoy their local beaches because they are polluted and kids are getting sick – largely because of human and animal waste in the water," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's clean water project.
Nationally, seven percent of beach water samples violated health standards, showing no improvement from 2006. In the Great Lakes, 15 percent of beach water samples violated those standards – the highest level of contamination of any coastal region in the continental U.S.
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