EPA Beach Contamination Data Online

EPA announced May 29, 2008, that its assembled data on beach closings in 2007 is available online. The Web site also contains a link ("Find your beach") that, after you work your way through the pages, provides quite a bit of detail about the beaches of interest to your audience in the Great Lakes, along the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic coasts, and for five US territories. * EPA 2007 Swimming Season National Summary. Overall, 32% of 3,602 monitored beaches had to be closed at least once due to detected contamination or for precautionary reasons. That's the same percentage as the year before, remaining at an all-time high since the program began in 1997. All 30 states and 4 territories had at least one closing. The Virgin Islands didn't report its data to EPA. The Natural Resources Defense Council expects to release its annual report on beaches in late July or early August 2008. NRDC bases its report on EPA information, but analyzes it in different ways. The new report should be posted here, where last year's report is still available.