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NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, for the third 

 straight year has issued a report on ocean and bay beach closings 

 in this country, and what we found this year in this report, Testing 

 the Waters III, a copy of which should be in each of your in or out 

 boxes, is that there were over 2,600 closings or advisories issued at 

 U.S. ocean and bay beaches in 1992. And the cause for these clos- 

 ings was elevated bacteria levels, which indicates the presence of 

 pathogens in human and animal waste; and the sources of that pol- 

 lution are, principally, overloaded sewage treatment plants, pollut- 

 ed storm water runoff, combined sewer overflows which discharge 

 raw sewage into our coastal waters, faulty septic systems and boat- 

 ing wastes. Those are the principal sources. 



And what this really tells us is that coastal pollution continues 

 to be a significant problem in this country; and I just want to un- 

 derline the health risks that we are talking about here. 



Swimmers at marine and bay beaches can contract illness from 

 several disease-causing pathogens that may be found in these pol- 

 luted waters. Gastroenteritis is the most common swimming-associ- 

 ated illness and can have a variety of symptoms: vomiting, diar- 

 rhea, stomach ache, nausea, headache and fever. Eye, ear and res- 

 piratory infections are also associated with swimming in sewage- 

 contaminated waters. While swimming in sewage-polluted waters 

 does not usually result in severe or life-threatening illness, such 

 swimming-associated illnesses can take a substantial toll in terms 

 of the convenience, comfort and well-being of the affected individ- 

 uals and can also result in economic losses to society in terms of 

 lost work, sick days. 



Moreover, some cases of gastroenteritis can be serious. Diarrheal 

 disease can be a particular concern for infants, small children and 

 the elderly. People should be able to go to the beach and enjoy 

 swimming in our oceans and bays without worrying about getting 

 sick. 



One of the other principal findings of our report this year is that, 

 once again, we found that there are a number of States, coastal 

 States, that have no regular monitoring of beach water for swim- 

 mer safety. Those States number eight, and they are concentrated 

 principally in the southeast, the Gulf Coast, and the Pacific North- 

 west. In addition, there are five States which have limited monitor- 

 ing, and by that we mean they monitor a limited portion of their 

 coastline or they monitor very infrequently, such as once a year. 

 There are nine States that do a reasonably good job, currently, of 

 monitoring, that means they monitor all or significant portions of 

 their coastline on a regular basis for swimmer safety. 



Another key finding is that the standards among the States, and 

 even within States, vary in terms of the indicator organism that is 

 used to determine the presence of the pathogens and the concentra- 

 tion of that indicator organism that will trigger a beach closing or 

 advisory. So you can be swimming in one State that has the same 

 level of pollution as a beach at another State that is closed; and we 

 very strongly believe that people around this country should be 

 able to go to the beach and be assured that they are going to be 

 afforded the same level of protection wherever they may be. 



Mr. Chairman, this year for the first time we gathered informa- 

 tion on the economics of this issue as well as the data on closings 



