NRDC Beach Report: New Hampshire Best, Louisiana Worst
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has released its 20th annual beach report, and it shows that among the 50 states, New Hampshire beaches are the least polluted, while Louisiana reported the most contamination.
Nationwide, 7% of beachwater samples violated health standards in 2009. The worst offender was the Great Lakes area, with a 13% contamination rate.
The least contaminated beaches were in New Hampshire (1%), Delaware (2%) and Oregon (also 2%). The worst beaches were in Louisiana (25%), Rhode Island (20%), and Illinois (16%).
These results were for 2009, but report also touches on the oil spill impact on Guf Coast beaches. The report says there were 2,239 beach closings, advisories, and notices in the Gulf region this year (as compared to 237 last year).
NRDC is maintaining a regularly updated map of current Gulf oil spill beach closures, advisories, and notices - www.nrdc.org/energy/gulfspill/beaches.asp.
NRDC Testing the Waters report - Download (pdf)
Posted on July 29th, 2010 by PLing
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