Pollution Still a Hazard to U.S. Beaches
Last updated at 6:53 p.m. EDT
A report on water quality at U.S. beaches shows a 10 percent decrease in closing or advisory days last year compared to 2007, but indicates pollution remains serious.
The Natural Resources Defense Council says in Wednesday's report that there were 20,341 days on which ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches were closed or were the subject of health advisories.
That's the fourth year in a row that the number has topped 20,000.
"Pollution from dirty stormwater runoff and sewage overflows continues to make its way to our beaches. This not only makes swimmers sick - it hurts coastal economies," said Nancy Stoner, NRDC Water Program Co-Director.
Click here to read the full report
Rain plays a big role in flushing pollutants into the oceans, but last year it was relatively dry in California, Hawaii and from Delaware to the southeastern states and the Gulf of Mexico.
The NRDC also says some of the overall decline was due to decreased funding for monitoring.
Five-Star Beaches include:
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Wetter than usual conditions increased closings and advisories in the Great Lakes, New England and the New York-New Jersey region.
"Nobody wants their trip to the beach to send them to the bathroom or, worse, the emergency room," said Stoner. "It is vitally important to remember that if it has recently rained - or you see or smell a pipe discharging onto the beach - keep your head above water or avoid swimming altogether."
Swimming in contaminated water causes hundreds of thousands of cases yearly of skin rash, pink eye and gastrointestinal diseases, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace
"What we saw this year is that we are not doing any better at addressing the sources of beach water pollution," Stoner told Wallace. "There were 7 percent of the samples that violated public health standards nationwide. That's the same thing we saw last year and the year before."