The Virginian-Pilot
©
As it has in years past, Virginia Beach ranks high in an annual report that rates the water quality at 200 of America's most popular beaches.
Four Virginia Beach testing sites received a rating of four stars out of five from the Natural Resources Defense Council, which released its 2009 report Wednesday.
Only beaches in Alabama, California, Minnesota and New Hampshire were ranked higher.
Each of the 200 beaches was judged on 2009 water quality, water quality over the past three years, water quality testing frequency, promptness of issuing advisories and methods of notifying the public.
All four Virginia Beach sites - two at Little Island Park north of the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge and one each near 15th and 28th streets on the Oceanfront - missed out on the star given for water testing frequency.
According to the report, Virginia Beach complies with federal recommendations to test water quality once a week at heavily used beaches. The NRDC, however, recommends more frequent testing.
NRDC Water Program Director David Beckman said the group awarded stars only to areas that tested more than once a week.
Regular water-quality testing is federally mandated. States are required to monitor beachwater for the presence of bacteria found in human and animal waste.
Of the samples taken in 2009, according to the report, 0 percent taken off the coast of Virginia Beach violated standards.
But the report did not have such great news for beaches on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The lowest was the one-star rating given to a South Nags Head beach near the 7500 block of Virginia Dare Trail.
Other one-star ratings were given to beaches in Florida, Maine, Mississippi, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
Nags Head Town Manager Cliff Ogburn wrote in an e-mail that the town considers itself "a leader in water quality testing, reporting and new initiatives."
He declined to comment specifically on the NRDC's findings.
Another Nags Head spot received two stars, and beaches near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and two other Nags Head locations received three stars each.
Nationally, contaminated water closed beaches or prompted advisories more than 18,600 times last year.
That's an 8 percent decrease since 2008.
But the NRDC report indicates the decrease may be more a reflection of dwindling funding for water-quality testing than an actual indication of improvement.
Erin James, (252) 441-1711, erin.james@pilotonline.com
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NASA's Wolverton Has Shown Viable Marshland Removes Sewage
With each heavy rain, storm water overwhelms the HRSD sanitary sewer system, filling it to capacity. So that manholes pop, lift stations bypass and the HRSD waste treatment plant is overwhelmed. The raw sewage spills out onto the streets. And then it’s a straight shot into the Lynnhaven basin, Chesapeake Bay and the entire oceanfront from Cape Henry to south Sandbridge, by way of the storm water outfalls.
Because of indiscriminate dragline dredging throughout the entire backwater system…Lynnhaven basin (1945-1975), inappropriate use of the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River (mechanical) dredge spoils (1990)…why, there’s very little marshland left to remove this raw sewage that enters these backwaters, after each heavy rain.
..”unacceptable fecal coliform levels…the source of this contamination …is somewhat puzzling as septic systems…have already been converted to City sewer…its is possible that avian populations.(on) Mount Trashmore lakes.. …may be the major fecal contributors …” (Colonel David Hansen
, USACE, Retired, and current Virginia Beach Deputy City Manager… 28 June 2002)…
Healthy Tidal Saltmarshes Can Remove Sanitary Sewer Overflows
No Colonel Hansen! It’s not the hundreds of (feral) mallards and resident Canada Geese of the Lynnhaven basin and its not the dogs….it’s the hundreds of thousands of homo sapiens of Virginia Beach using a poorly designed HRSD sanitary sewer system. That in times of heavy rainfall, or large storm surges, floods the Lynnhaven basin and all our beaches with fecal coliforms!
Want proof? How about having an independent microbiology lab do blind sample DNA testing on the fecal coliforms? No political arm twisting, please! A good lab can tell the source of the fecal coliforms…human vs. canine vs. avian!....
Colonel Hansen, It's About the Hydology and the Sediment!
However, I would agree that the mallards and geese do play a (minor) role in the coliform problem. And that’s why our group has called for a special residential Canada Goose (and feral mallard) hunting season as so many forward thinking North American municipalities have done. To achieve the necessary behavior modification of these birds.
But for Hansen to implicate the birds (and dogs) without mentioning the faulty design of the HRSD sanitary sewer system, combined with the loss of those critical tidal marshes’ filter systems is…disingenuous! And now Hansen is telling us that hydraulic pipeline dredge restoration of the fringe marshes of the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven River is ill advised! ….My ! My! My!
Search: NASA’s BC Wolverton re: the ability of healthy marshland to efficiently remove fecal coliform organisms….
It's not the Dogs nor the Geese, It's the Homo Sapiens!
Finally, it was Hansen that brainstormed the $180 million offshore pipelines at 16th, 41st, 79th and, now, 61st streets. Pipelines that don’t work when needed the most, during heavy rains and storm surges…. $180 million dollars borrowed from the Chinese…and they don’t work! Just like the $2.1 billion he blew on the Red River Waterway when he was in Louisiana…. 2.1 billion dollars!!! Read about the money that Hansen et al wasted in Louisiana in Michael Grunwald’s best seller, “Cry Me a River”
Would it not had been better to spend a tiny fraction of that $180 million to rebuild the marshland of the Lynnhaven basin, Lake Holly and Lake Tecumseh by hydraulic pipeline dredge, as has been done in Louisiana and south San Francisco Bay? And to let these backwater marshlands filter the sanitary sewer overflows. As Mother Nature had intended.
To learn more search: George Meredith MD Comments.
George Meredith MD, President
Linkhorn Rudee Waterway Fund
Clean Water to Drink Also
Too bad you didn’t get Debbie Messina of your paper to add a little post script like, “not only does Virginia Beach have clean ocean water but Norfolk was rated in 2007 as the fourth most pure drinking water among 100 U.S. cities by Men's Health magazine. Norfolk supplies Virginia Beach with all their drinking water.” I cringe at shoppers caring tons of bottled water out of the grocery store. They just don’t know that the water they are paying more for than their gasoline is more harmful than their tap water. See http://hamptonroads.com/node/227071
I'm assuming
I'm assuming we'll be ahead of Alabama next year thanks to BP. Please cherish our beautiful coast and say no to offshore drilling.
Just as soon as you park
Just as soon as you park your car for good.
Hmmmm....
I think city trash workers will cause more damage to the beach than an off shore rig would.
Watch where you sit on the beach!
This is absolute nonsense
If our water quality is so clean, then explain to me why I can't see anything submerged further than 5 inches? I was in Wrightsville Beach two weeks ago, and I could see my feet when I was standing in 5 ft of water. It's clear seawater down there, and it's green and murky up here. Also, has anyone seen the vast drainage runoffs spilling millions of gallons of wastewater into the ocean at the North End? Wasn't the Oceanfront closed down for several days last week because of "elevated microbial levels?" I would like to see the full report from NRDC, as well as a detailed statement from their surveyors detailing their measurements and data collection practices. According the NRDC's current website, "Nearly three-quarters of the 2009 beach closings and advisories were issued because water quality monitoring revealed bacteria levels exceeding health and safety standards. Across the country, aging and poorly designed sewage treatment systems and contaminated stormwater are often to blame for beachwater pollution." Sounds like Virginia Beach to me... Then again, compared to Louisiana's beaches, I guess we're clean as a whistle.
confused
First, the water is very clear when you get a few miles offshore. I've done some scuba diving on wrecks a few miles out and you have top-to-bottom visibility in 80 feet of water.
Second, the stormwater run-off needs to be piped and run a distance off shore so that the pollution dissipates. That is why there are pipes running hundreds of feet out into the ocean to capture, filter and send the water off shore. Much better than just letting rainwater rush into the ocean off of yards, streets, etc.