(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) A new report released by a climate activist group that other climate activists called “troubling” indicated that more than half of America’s beaches are literally awash in crap.
A report released by Boston-based Environment America as part of its annual “Safe for Swimming” initiative claimed that 55% of U.S. beaches contained potentially unsafe levels of fecal contamination in 2022.
While the reported numbers sounded alarming, and was enough for climate activists and leftist politicians to use as a call for additional funding, the numbers represented only a slight increase from the group’s 2020 study and a decrease from its 2019 numbers, when it found trace amounts of fecal matter, respectively, in 53% and 56% of U.S. beaches.
This time around Environment America surveyed 3,192 beaches across the country’s coastlines with results showing that 55% had unsafe levels of sewage in their waters on at least one day last year.
That was good enough for EPA officials and environmental activists to use the study as a cudgel to beat the bushes for more funding and expanding government regulations.
“Fifty years ago, we came together as a nation and declared that all our waterways would be safe for swimming,” Environment America senior attorney John Rumpler said. “Most Americans still believe clean water is worth it and expect officials to take bold action to protect it.”
Using Environment America’s report, climate activist analysts warned that about 1 in 30 people who swim in waters contaminated by sewage were at risk of becoming sick, either through swallowing water or through infection with bodily contact.
States along the Gulf Coast, including Florida, Texas and Louisiana, were the worst for fecal matter, with 84% of their beaches having at least one day in 2022 when the water was contaminated with feces, according to Environment America’s report.
The West Coast ranked in the second tier of worst fecal-infected, with California, Oregon and Washington averaging 70% of their beaches polluted at least once last year. Great Lake beaches in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois averaged 63% of beaches testing at least one day month for fecal matter at higher than average levels.
On the flip side of the scale, East Coast beaches recorded 48% while Hawaii and Alaska averaged 24%.
