Over half of NY’s beaches ‘potentially unsafe’ due to fecal matter: report
By Natalie O'Neill
By Natalie O'Neill
July 23, 2019 | 3:52pm
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New York beaches are among the crappiest in the country, according to a new study on fecal water pollution.
Roughly 65 percent of the Empire State’s swimming spots are “potentially unsafe” due to pooh-particles — with Tanner Park on South Oyster Bay, Woodlawn State Park on Lake Erie, and Shirley Beach in Suffolk County topping the list as state’s top three worst beaches, according to a report published this week by Environment America Research & Policy Center.
In total, researchers took 422 water samples from New York beaches, 276 of which were found to put beach-goers at risk for at least one day last year.
Overall, researchers took water samples from a total of 4,523 beaches nationwide and found that nearly 60 percent had water pollution levels that put swimmers at risk of getting sick.
New Jersey beaches also didn’t come out looking too clean.
Roughly 37 percent of the swimming spots in the Garden State tested were potentially unsafe, or 133 out of 356, according to the report, dubbed “Safe for Swimming?”
Beachwood Beach in Berkeley Township topped the list as the most polluted, followed by L Street Beach in Belmar Borough and West Beach Avon Road also in Berkeley Township, according to the study.
By contrast, Pennsylvania’s clean water cred truly stinks — with 96 percent of beaches in the state testing possibly dangerous. In Connecticut, 72 percent of beaches were dubbed “possibly dangerous.”
States with the cleanest water include Oregon, where only 31 percent of beaches were unsafe, and Delaware, with 30 percent.