Coastal and Great Lakes states vary in their level of compliance with EPA beach water quality standards. (Map courtesy of EPA)
Although you might just be starting to think about the swimming season… the people who monitor beach pollution have been especially busy trying to meet a federal deadline. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports… 21 of 30 coastal and Great Lakes states failed to adopt federal beach health standards by the April deadline:
Transcript
Although you might just be starting to think about the swimming season, the
people who monitor beach pollution have been especially busy trying to meet
a federal deadline. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams
reports… 21 of 30 coastal and Great Lakes states failed to adopt federal
beach health standards by the April deadline:
The 2000 Beach Act requires beach states to put uniform monitoring standards
in place. Only nine states have fully adopted the federal standards,
including Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The standards are used to show whether unsafe levels of bacteria or viruses
are in the water. Beaches are often closed after heavy rainstorms cause
sewers to overflow.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it plans to help states move more
quickly to adopt the standards. Doing so ensures continued federal funding.
Laurel O’ Sullivan is with the Lake Michigan Federation. She says the money
granted to beach states is earmarked for improving monitoring programs.
“It’s clear under the Beach Act that if they do not have these standards in
place, that the EPA does have the authority to withhold money, so these
states are jeopardizing their ability to receive much needed federal
funding.”
O’Sullivan says paperwork backlogs have slowed some states down. But she
says in several cases, states that missed the deadline are likely to adopt
the standards later this year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.