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American Morning
Survey: Number of Beach Closures up 83 Percent
Aired August 08, 2001 - 11:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: During these hot days of summer, you may want to call ahead or check the Web if you're heading to any beaches. A new survey released this morning by the Natural Resources Defense Council says that the number of beach closures are up 83 percent over a one-year period. Now the group is calling on the Bush administration to implement new federal water-quality standards to clean up coastal pollution. The new standards were announced just before President Clinton left office.
Joining us from Washington is Sarah Chasis. She is the director of water and coastal programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
We thank you much for coming in today and explaining the report for us.
The first question has toi be why did you all wait so late in the summer season to bring out this report, instead of doing it at the beginning of the season, when folks would be going out for their vacations?
SARAH CHASIS, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: Good question. We utilize data that is collected by EPA as well as by ourselves, and it took that long for the data from last year to be gathered by EPA and for our researchers to analyze it. What we found is, as you mentioned, that there were nearly double the number of beach closings and advisories last year, as compared to the year before.
And the reasons appear to be twofold. The first is that there was more rain in several parts in the country. The more rain, the more pollution gets into the water.
The other reason is part of the good news of the report: That is that there is improved monitoring and public notification occurring around the country, particularly in about six states. So part of the reason there's an increase is that the monitoring is showing that there's more pollution. So the more monitoring, the more you look, it appears the more pollution.
HARRIS: So there are no real alarms going off? It's not a case of man actually dumping more garbage into the waters?
CHASIS: We don't know that. All we know is that the more you look, the more you find. Until we have a consistent and comprehensive national program, it's going to be difficult to assess trends year to year. What our report found is there is still a great deal of inconsistency in the extent of monitoring among states and even within states.
HARRIS: We have some pictures we put together of some of the beaches, and a list, and some of the folks out there may be surprised to find San Diego, California. How bad was the problem there?
CHASIS: There were a lot of beach closings in San Diego. I think that area of the country more than any other. But partly -- in fact, in large part -- that's due to the fact that they do a good job of monitoring and letting the public know. So the fact that they had over a thousand closings is not necessarily because they have more pollution. California adopted a law that requires comprehensive monitoring and public notification, and that's a good thing.
HARRIS: There's a couple of other beaches that I want to bring out: Jones Beach, New York; Key West, Florida; Miami Beach, Florida; and St. Croix, Virgin Islands -- these are all hot vacation destinations. How dangerous is the situation with the contamination there, since we know so many people are either heading there or have been there?
CHASIS: The fact is that some beaches are cleaner than others, and some do a better job of monitoring than others. What we advise, if you are heading off on your vacation, is to check with the local health department, or check NRDC's Web site. Our report is up. We've rated over 2,000 beaches. The Web address is www.nrdc.org. And that can help you assess how good is the monitoring, how serious is the pollution.
HARRIS: I should advise folks that we have your Web site called up for us, and here we can show the address. Here it is: nrdc.org.
Sarah Chasis, thank you very much for coming in and explaining it for us.
There is some good news, there is a silver lining in that report.
We thank you for...
(CROSSTALK)
CHASIS: That's right. Thank you.
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