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August 7, 2007

Report: RI beaches closed more often last year

Rhode Island's beaches were closed more often last year than in 2005 for elevated bacteria levels, in part because the state soaked in twice the rainfall, says a national report released today by an environmental group.

Warren Town Beach exceeded the state's daily maximum bacterial standards last year more than any other beach by percentage, says the "Testing the Waters" report.

Warren Town Beach exceeded the limit 29 percent of the time. Following it were Plum Beach Club at 25 percent, Saunderstown Yacht Club at 23 percent, and Third Beach in Newport at 17 percent. To see the full list, go here.
Washington County, at 67 percent, had the largest percentage of beaches that did not exceed the bacterial limits, followed by Newport County at 58 percent, acording to the report.

Kent County had the most beach closings, accounting for more than a third of the state's beach closing days.

In one category, the report said Rhode Island and four other states were worst in the country. It's for beaches that most often failed to meet federal healtjh standards and are highly popular with beachgoers, close to a pollution source, or both. The report examined more closely what it labels these "high-risk" beaches -- ones with high use or proximity to pollution sources, known as "tier one" in the report.

Besides Rhode Island, the others deemed worst in the high-risk catergory were Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota.

Over all, the report asserts the following:

"There are national health standards ... and those five states were the worst in failing to meet the national standards," Hamlet Paoletti, a senior media associate with the council, said in an interview.

But amount of rainfall, and where, is a factor in deeming the tier-one beaches' results and, therefore, the states, he said.

"Every time it rains, the rain carries more pollutants to the seas," said Paoletti, noting that in Hawaii, for instance, high-than normal rainfall caused its results to shoot up.

The report does offer positives about Rhode Island's beaches, too. For instance, 59 percent of all monitored beaches in the state did not exceed limits.

Rhode Island "has a strong source identification emphasis" in its monitoring program of water and potential pollutants, the report found. "Because of the monitoring program, problems with storm drains, sewer lines, and septic systems have been revealed and corrected or are in the process of being corrected."

And none of Rhode Island's beaches made the "beach bums" list in the report for beaches that don't meet federal standards more than half of the time. Those that did make the list were in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois.

The report gave a statistical breakdown of the state's individual beaches, including ones that are not in tier one. For the full list, go here.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 2:17 PM | Permalink

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