Editor’s Note: This item has been updated with correct information from Save Our Sound, which previously said 198 beach days were lost to pollution.
Connecticut beaches were either closed or advisoried because of pollution for 298 days in 2012, ranking the state 17 out of 30 in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual Testing the Waters report.
The 198 beach closures were down from 538 days in 20122 but still more than twice the number of closing/advisories in 2010, 2009, or 2008.
“When it comes to clean water, being ‘middle-of-the-pack’ is not good enough,” said Leah Schmalz, director of legislative and legal affairs for Save the Sound. “One out of every ten American citizens lives within an hour’s drive of Long Island Sound, and they deserve clean, safe beaches—even one closing because of bacteria and pollution is too many.”
Of the beach closings, 22 percent came from monitoring that revealed elevated bacteria levels and 29 percent were preemptive due to heavy rainfall, according to the report. The remaining days were preemptive due to wildlife.
The Connecticut beaches with the worst records for exceeding daily maximum bacteria standards were Fairfield County’s Pear Tree Point Beach, Calf Pasture Beach, Weed Beach, and Rowayton Beach, and New Haven County’s Seabluff Beach and Oak Street B Beach.
