Findings

Disturbing Information

FINDING: The information that is available on beach health gives us cause for concern.

Although beach health indicator information is often lacking, the information that is available points to serious problems that will not be easy to solve. Examples include:

Nearly 70% of our nation's coastline is privately owned. More than 90% of the Maine and Virginia shorelines are privately owned. These facts make it very difficult to provide adequate public access to the coast in many areas.
According to NRDC's Testing the Waters report, the number of closing and advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches in 2008 topped 20,000 for the fourth consecutive year, confirming that our nation's beaches continue to suffer from serious water pollution that puts swimmers at risk. Aging and poorly designed sewage and stormwater systems hold much of the blame for beachwater pollution. Even in the relatively dry 2008 beach season, stormwater runoff contributed to two-thirds of the closing/advisory days in which a contamination source was reported. Unknown sources of pollution caused nearly 13,000 closing and advisory days.
The miles of critically eroded beach in Florida have increased from 218 miles in 1989 to approximately 365 miles in 2005. More than 47% of New York’s shoreline, and 26% of New Jersey’s and Virginia’s shorelines are identified as critically eroding. Approximately 31% of Maryland’s ocean coastline is currently experiencing some degree of erosion. Nearly 80% of Wisconsin's Great Lakes shorelines suffer from bluff erosion and recession problems. The erosion data that we do have tend to point out the importance of (1) not building too close to the coast, (2) working to re-establish historical sand supply sources, where possible, and (3) avoiding construction of shoreline protective structures in favor of “managed retreat” or environmentally-sensitive beach fill.
Federal beach fill funding in Fiscal Year 2002 reached an all-time high of $135 million. Florida topped the list, receiving more than $31 million in federal funding. Federal funding means than many citizens of the U.S. are paying for beaches they will never use. From 2003 into 2007 federal funding for beach fill projects began to be reduced considerably, which will tend to make our erosion response choices even more difficult.
More than 10% of the California, Florida, Maine, New Jersey and South Carolina shoreline is covered with beach-destroying shoreline armoring. Some coastal counties in southern California are as much as 45% armored. Armoring inevitably leads to a loss of beach and tends to promote more armoring. Is that our vision of the future?

These are but a few of the alarming facts we have been able to find. You'll find more in the state reports section, with more detailed information and links to data sources.