June 29, 2011

Beaches to Avoid This July 4th

Avalon Beach: I'll stay on the sand, thank you.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/migulski/3427096431/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Bogdan Migulski</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Angelenos beware: If you plan to spend your Independence Day soaking up rays on the beach, it might be wise to stay out of the water.

That’s according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 21st annual report on beach water quality, which reveals the nation’s dirtiest lake and seaside beaches. Southern California snagged the most spots on a list of “repeat offenders,” where contamination—mostly from human and animal waste in storm runoff—exceeded national standards at least a quarter of the time over the last four years.

Overall, 2010 saw the second-highest number of beach closures and health advisories in the past two decades. Beaches were scored based not only on water quality, but also on how accessible local officials made that information to the public.

NRDC officials cited everything from the stomach flu and pink eye to dysentery and hepatitis as illnesses that can strike swimmers, adding that animal waste can exacerbate algal blooms that have health consequences for marine life. And you thought the local water park was bad.

“A day at the beach shouldn’t have to come with a skin rash as a souvenir,” NRDC water expert David Beckman said.

And the most consistently dirty beaches are (drum roll, please):

  • California: Avalon Beach in Los Angeles County
  • California: Cabrillo Beach in Los Angeles County
  • California: Doheny State Beach in Orange County
  • Florida: Keaton Beach in Taylor County
  • Illinois: North Point Marina, North Beach in Lake County
  • New Jersey: Beachwood Beach West in Ocean County
  • Ohio: Villa Angela State Park in Cuyahoga County (also home of the famously flammable Cuyahoga River)
  • Texas: Ropes Park in Nueces County
  • Wisconsin: Eichelman Beach in Kenosha County
  • Wisconsin: South Shore Beach in Milwaukee

But there’s still hope for a dysentery-free holiday weekend. Also released was a (shorter) list of “superstar” beaches, where water testing has been perfectly clean for the last three years:

  • Delaware: Rehoboth Beach in Sussex County
  • Delaware: Dewey Beach in Sussex County
  • Minnesota: Park Point Lafayette Community Club Beach in St. Louis County
  • New Hampshire: Hampton Beach State Park in Rockingham County

And if the report doesn’t list your local beach, NRDC attorney Jon Devine urges folks to use common sense: “If the water looks or smells funny, don’t go in.”

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate