Safe for Swimming – 2020 Edition
Pollution at our beaches and how to prevent it
Beach closures from pollution, particularly fecal contamination, occur too frequently across Michigan and around the country. Washington D.C. needs to invest in our infrastructure to protect our water.
Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center
The Clean Water Act, adopted in 1972, set the goal of making all of our waterways safe for swimming. Nearly a half-century later, Americans visiting their favorite beach are still met all too often by advisories warning that the water is unsafe for swimming. And each year, millions of Americans are sickened by swimming in contaminated water.
An analysis of fecal indicator bacteria sampling data from beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico reveals that 386 beaches – nearly one of every eight surveyed – were potentially unsafe on at least 25 percent of the days that sampling took place last year. More than half of all the 3,172 beaches reviewed were potentially unsafe for swimming on at least one day. Beaches were considered potentially unsafe if fecal indicator bacteria levels exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Beach Action Value” associated with an estimated illness rate of 32 out of every 1,000 swimmers.
Fecal contamination makes beaches unsafe for swimming.
Human contact with contaminated water can result in gastrointestinal illness as well as respiratory disease, ear and eye infection and skin rash. Each year in the U.S., swimmers in oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds suffer from an estimated 57 million cases of recreational waterborne illness.
Our beaches are at risk. Runoff from paved surfaces, overflows from aging sewage systems, and manure from industrial livestock operations all threaten the waters where Americans swim. These pollution threats are getting worse with climate change, as more extreme precipitation events bring heavy flows of stormwater.
Of more than 3,000 beaches sampled for bacteria across the country in 2019, 386 were potentially unsafe for swimming on at least 25% of days that testing took place. In Michigan, in 2019, 78 of 196 beaches tested were potentially unsafe for at least one day. Michiganders can find a daily updated list of closed beaches here.
Solutions exist
To protect our health at the beach, policymakers should undertake efforts to prevent fecal pollution, by increasing investments in sewer infrastructure, limiting releases from factory farms, and deploying natural and green infrastructure to absorb stormwater.
