Agencies make sure beach waters are clean

You hope that beach water you are playing in isn't teeming with bacteria that's going to make you sick if you accidentally get a mouthful.

But you generally can't tell just by looking at it or sniffing it, so public-health officials go out weekly during beach season to get water samples to test for contaminant levels.

Just in time for Memorial Day, last week the Virginia Department of Health kicked off its annual beachmonitoring program. Local health department employees go out weekly to check water quality for swimming at 44 beaches along 70 miles of bay and coast shoreline.

Water samples are tested for levels of enterococcus group bacteria of the type found in the intestines of people and animals, which can indicate whether the water has been polluted by fecal matter.

"We simply couldn't test for every single possible thing that could make you sick," said Dan Dietrich, who oversees the beach-monitoring program at the Virginia Department of Health.

"So we do the next best thing and test for what tells us what those levels are, using those indicator bacteria," said Dietrich, coordinator for the Waterborne Hazards Control Program.

Results above a certain level -- 104 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water -- are cause for concern. The results are posted on the state Health Department Web site. Warnings are posted advising people that swimming is a health risk.

Last year, swimming advisories were posted at six beaches in Virginia, covering a total of about 30 days. That's a decrease from 2007, when 14 advisories were posted for a total of 50 days.

A spell of rainy weather increases the chance that water samples will come back too high. Rain washes pollution off streets and sidewalks and into storm drains that dump directly into bodies of water without being treated.

But for the most part, swimming advisories are not mandates, and people can opt to get in the water at their own risk.

That's not the case in Virginia Beach, however, which has a stronger local ordinance that lets it ban people from getting in the water when tests come back too high.

It's not often that the city has to take such drastic measures, said Erin Sutton, environmental health manager at the Virginia Beach Public Health Department. And, she said, "you can still be on the beach."

Last year, there were swimming advisories at First Landing, Lesner Bridge and Sea Gate toward the end of the season. Virginia Beach monitors 14 miles of public beaches, taking samples at 22 sites.

"It keeps the community safe," Sutton said. "We have had 10 exceedances over the last 31 years. Virginia Beach has clean beaches, but development, population increases, wild and domestic animals can be factors."

Sutton said the city's ongoing public works and public utilities projects to extend stormwater outfall drains farther offshore help keep beach water clean because runoff doesn't get dumped as close to shore.

But there are things people can do, too. Avoid feeding birds at the beach -- they leave behind droppings that get washed into the water. And pick up after pets at the beach.

Contaminated water, Dietrich said, can cause gastrointestinal illness; ear, eye and throat infections; and skin problems.

Virginia's beach-water samples exceeded test contaminant levels less than 2 percent of the time in 2007, compared with a national average of about 7 percent. The data are from the 2008 edition of Testing the Waters, a report from the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or .

Richmond-area residents also enjoy swimming in the James River. We asked Virginia Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Bill Hayden about monitoring efforts.

What monitoring is done of the James River for swimming safety?

On a routine basis it's monitored about quarterly. When I say monitored, we collect water samples and conduct tests for bacteria, among other things. In the area from Pony Pasture to Tredegar in the summer months we may monitor more than once a month. It depends on what the weather has been like. If we get a lot of rain, we may be more likely to check. So it's not a fixed schedule, but generally more in the summer.

Who does the monitoring?

We have biologists who do that. For the James River, some of the samples are collected by [James River Park System Manager] Ralph White.

When you get a high reading, what do you do?

We don't post anything. The main reason is we don't do it often enough for there to be an immediate impact. We really don't have the authority to post anything. That's why we do try to post what we do get on our Web site so that people who spend time at the river are aware of the need to be cautious after a rain. They can check our Web site [www.deq.virginia.gov/watermonitoring/jamesriver.html] to see just what the readings have been.

Waters can be fine for swimming but not fishing?

Fishing advisories are put out by the Health Department, usually with the data the Department of Environmental Quality collects.

Is the James River safe for swimming?

For the most part the James River is fine for swimming. It's improved quite a bit over the past few years. Thirty years ago it was a real problem. . . . Unless there is a heavy rain, we really don't expect to see a significant amount of pollution in the river.