Beach Pollution a Growing Threat to U.S. Health and Economy

Beach Pollution a Growing Threat to U.S. Health and Economy

If you heard about a nation that had to declare more than 20,000 beach-closure or advisory days in a single year due to raw sewage and other water pollution that threatened the health of swimmers, what would you think? Must be some Third World country that still treats its rivers and streams as a national sewer system, right?

Think again.

The nation in question is the United States, which in 2008 saw the fourth-highest number of beach closures and advisories in the past 19 years, according to an annual report by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on water quality at vacation beaches in the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts.