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Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach Three of Sussex County’s most popular seaside attractions have been given four-star ratings by a national environmental group.
Closings and advisories at Delaware’s ocean beaches fell last year and the state is at the bottom of a list of states whose beach waters exceed national pollutant standards.
Katie Kokkinos, central field fellow for Environment America, said many of America’s beaches suffer from pollution to such an extent that it is harming beachgoers, even making some sick. “Some families can’t enjoy a summer vacation because the water is too dirty to swim in,” she said.
But according to the results of a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) beach water quality study, Delaware’s Atlantic Coast beaches are among the best in the nation. Just one percent of 373 water quality samples taken in 2007 exceeded national standards. Delaware was 28th among 30 states whose beach water samples exceeded national limits. Illinois topped the list; 23 percent of more than 5,800 samples topped standards.
Todd Frichtman, captain of the Dewey Beach Patrol and aquatic biologist with Envirotech, said, “It’s great to see this type of reporting being done to safeguard our water quality.”
“I am thrilled we’re on this list of the nation’s cleanest beaches,” said Fay Jacobs, executive director of Rehoboth Beach Mainstreet. “I have a significant interest in this, personally and professionally. It’s our business to keep our beaches as clean as possible,” she said.
Delaware’s health advisory and closing days hit 10 last year, up from zero in 2006, Kokkinos said. Those advisories were at Prime Hook Beach and Slaughter Beach in mid-June last year. No source of the bacteria that caused those advisories was identified.
Still, no samples taken at the ocean beaches, nor at Lewes Beach, exceeded pollution limits.
Kokkinos applauded Delaware’s clean waters but urged federal lawmakers to uphold a ban on offshore oil drilling. Opening offshore oil deposits to drilling would threaten the nation’s summer playgrounds by increasing the risk of oil spills, she said.
And, she said, for scientists to keep better tabs on water quality, some technology updates are in order. Stormwater systems are ageing and must be upgraded, and antiquated testing methods must be improved, Kokkinos said. Area waters are in danger because of human habits, including development, increased impervious surfaces and the use of pesticides, said Frichtman. He called for individual stewardship and responsibility to help keep coastal waters clean and help clean up other waters in the state.
Inland Bays not as clean
NRDC also looked at Delaware’s Inland Bays, where there is a standing caution regarding swimming. The Inland Bays suffer from nutrient pollution, coming from failing septic systems, fertilizers and other sources. Water is slow to flush out of those bays, so pollutants linger.
The state keeps a preemptive rainfall advisory for freshwater swimming areas.
In the Inland Bays, because of nutrient pollution and other environmental factors, there are blooms of algae, some of which are harmful. Low dissolved oxygen leads to fish kills, often in tributaries of the bays.
Chris Bason, science and technical coordinator for the Center for the Inland Bays, said on average, the open waters of the Bays have bacteria levels below federal and state limits. “This is great news – it indicates these areas of the bays are safe for recreating,” he said. But, Bason said, the creeks that flow into the bays are a different story.
Air pollution also contributes to poor water quality in the bays. The Nature Conservancy and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies released a study recently on the effects of sulfur, nitrogen, mercury and ozone air pollution on a variety of East Coast ecosystems. Roger Jones, state director of the Nature Conservancy’s Delaware chapter, said impacts to Delaware forests, rivers and wetlands could be troubling. The group called for better pollution regulation.
Bason said 25 percent of nitrogen inputs to the Inland Bays are directly deposited to the surface of the bays from the air. He said atmospheric deposition of phosphorus is also a significant concern, especially in the summer months.
The University of Delaware’s Citizens Monitoring Program, run by Ed Whereat, conducts frequent monitoring of Inland Bays waters for bacteria, dissolved oxygen, algae and nuisance vegetation. Bason said the center’s Science and Technical Advisory Committee is putting together a subcommittee to examine writing a bays-health indicator based on bacteria.
Ocean Outfall
Part of the pollution from the Inland Bays comes from municipalities’ wastewater treatment plant, including the one for Rehoboth Beach, which currently discharges into the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal.
The city must stop that discharge by 2014 and is now examining alternative ways to handle its wastewater. Top options are spray irrigation and ocean outfall – piping the treated wastewater into the ocean.
Ron Patterson, Rehoboth Beach city commissioner, said for decades Ocean City and Bethany Beach have used ocean outfall systems. He said the city is on the clock to decide whether to use spray irrigation or ocean outfall, noting that ocean outfall may take longer to get online because of permitting.
Patterson said the city must examine the science behind ocean outfall and determine what effect it will have on public perception of the Rehoboth beaches.
Frichtman said if science could prove the wastewater is discharged far enough from the coast so it would not be carried into the coastal waters by meanders, tides or currents, it could be beneficial by encouraging growth in the water far offshore.
Whereat said in most modern treatment plants, effluent is chemically disinfected and is exposed to ultraviolet light to kill fecal bacterial.
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