Because of human contact with the waters, these northern states should implement monitoring programs for their recreational beaches as well. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania monitor recreational ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches regularly for swimmer safety and notify the public. Alabama, Puerto Rico and Texas have monitoring programs for all or a portion of their beaches, but no public notification procedures. Regular monitoring is reasonably inexpensive, depending on how much territory is covered and the kind of monitoring that is done. When the economic benefit of tourism is added in, the investment in monitoring and notifying the public about potential pollution problems pays off in the long run.
Beaches are the top vacation destination in the country.
The primary purpose of beach closings is to protect public health. Though there may be short-term impacts to local economies from beach closings, public confidence would be enhanced by the knowledge that effective beach protection and cleanup programs are in place. NRDC recommends a national standard for beachwater monitoring and for issuing closures or advisories to insure consistency from state to state. These steps would go a long way to informing the public about polluted waters. In the end, it makes the best public health, environmental, and economic sense to clean up the sources of beachwater pollution.