July 4th weekend should be a time when we can go to the beach to relax and enjoy the water. We need to strengthen, not weaken, the Clean Water Act to guarantee safe beaches for summers to come. For the first time, the report rates 12 of the nation's most popular vacation beaches on whether they are regularly monitored for pollution. Many beaches that receive millions of visitors annually fail to regularly monitor beach water and notify beachgoers when swimming waters are contaminated with pollutants that can cause gastroenteritis, dysentery, hepatitis, ear, nose, and throat problems, and respiratory illness in swimmers. No uniform national standards for monitoring beach water quality for swimmer safety or for warning of contamination exist.
Many states provide irregular monitoring or no monitoring for swimmer safety at all.
In addition, among the states that do monitor, some do not always notify the public and close beaches when standards are violated. Testing the Waters details a plan of action for clean beach water and swimmer health. The report calls for a national uniform beach protection standard and monitoring requirement, as well as mandatory closure and advisory requirements. The State PIRGs announced their support for federal legislation to address the problem of inconsistent or nonexistent beach water monitoring and public notification. These bills would require states to post and maintain signs at all beaches notifying beachgoers of water quality problems.