High Number of Polluted U.S. Beach Days Motivates Lawsuit

[donsu]

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2006/2006-08-03-03.asp


High levels of bacterial contamination at an increasing number of U.S. beaches has prompted the Natural Resources Defense Council to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to modernize the health standards as ordered by Congress six years ago.

The lawsuit was announced today in conjunction with the release of the environmental group's annual beachwater sampling report, "Testing the Waters."

The report shows that the number of closing and health advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 in 2005 - the most since NRDC began tracking the problem in 1990.

"These problems are preventable," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water Project. "It would be a lot safer to swim if municipalities used soil and vegetation to capture and filter stormwater at its source, and upgraded their aging sewer systems."

In most of the more than 20,000 cases documented, beachwater was contaminated with bacteria, and beachgoers were either swimming in it or banned from swimming because of the health risks.
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and the little kids are digging and playing in the sand