Bad Beaches

When I was honored at a Los Angeles City Council meeting in 2003, Councilman Dennis Zine - the former president of L.A.'s Police Protective League - stood up to make a little speech about me and mentioned in passing that Florida suffered from killer humidity and mosquitoes as big as airplanes. I responded, thinking of the beautiful sand I'd seen here on an earlier visit, "Yes, but they land on pure white beaches!"

Well, a story in today's Herald has something to add to that perception today.

While the headline bravely declares that six beaches flunked tests for levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria performed by Florida's Healthy Beaches project and provided to the National Resources Defense Council, it went to great lengths to avoid the more painful truth: While only four percent of Florida beaches failed the nationwide testing, 60 percent of Manatee County beaches did.

Rather than front-page news that might hurt tourism, the Herald's boosterism seemed to get the better of it. There is a long account of the testing results statewide, and only after five paragraphs does the story - from the paper's wire services and unnamed Herald staff - move into the local situation.

While context is always good, here it is used to obscure a powerful testament to the pollution fouling so many county beaches as the result of uncontrolled growth, red tide due to phosphate runoffs, and a lack of storm drains.

Here's they way we might have written that lede:

"Manatee County beaches far exceeded statewide pollution rates, a major environmental group says. In a study that found only four percent of beaches statewide have unacceptably high levels of fecal bacteria that can cause serious illness, 60 percent of beaches tested in Manatee County exceed those levels, according to a report by the National Resources Defense Council."

What are the consequence? Well, first the NRDC notes:

This year's report highlights another disturbing trend: Most municipalities have failed to identify and control sources of bacteria and other pollution tainting water near beaches. In 2005, 75 percent of closing and advisory days stemmed from monitoring that revealed high levels of bacteria associated with fecal contamination. Typically, bacteria come from sewage discharges or runoff from urban streets. Yet 14,602 closing and advisory days -- or 63 percent of the 2005 total -- were attributed to unknown sources, the second highest number of days attributed to "unknown sources" since NRDC began tracking beachwater quality 16 years ago.

And is it dangerous? The study says:

Yes. Exposure to bacteria, viruses and parasites in contaminated beachwater can cause a wide range of diseases, including ear, nose and eye infections; gastroenteritis; hepatitis; encephalitis; skin rashes; and respiratory illnesses. Most waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States occur during the summer, when Americans are most likely to be exposed to contaminated beachwater. Experts estimate that as many as 7 million Americans get sick every year from drinking or swimming in water contaminated with bacteria, viruses or parasites.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) epidemiological studies in the Great Lakes from 2002 and 2003 found that more than 10 percent of swimmers report contracting gastroenteritis or respiratory infections after swimming. Based on those results and beach attendance numbers, nearly 300 people could expect to contract a respiratory illness after swimming in Lake Michigan in Chicago on a summer weekend.

During the summer of 2003, 8,800 beachgoers participated in a study at the six most popular Mission Bay beaches in San Diego, California. The study found skin rash and diarrhea to be consistently significantly elevated in swimmers compared to non-swimmers. For diarrhea, this risk was strongest among children 5 to 12 years old, with more getting sick with increased degree of water contact: an estimated 27 cases per 1,000 among children with any water contact, 32 cases among those with facial contact with the water, and 59 cases among those who swallowed water.

The state ranked 7th in the nation in fouled beaches, although the information may be skewed by including Great Lakes and other coastal regions that have far less than our 1,300 miles of coastline.

What is also troubling is that in Manatee County, only 10 of 13 beaches are tested. Currently, beaches in Longboat Key, the city of Anna Maria access beach, and Emerson Point are untested, so the percentage of bad beaches could be even higher - or lower - than revealed.

All the other local beaches are tested weekly; the Herald doesn't mention the untested beaches or explain why they are never sampled.