Great Lakes In the News

The groups, Environment Michigan and Clean Water Action, are to release the annual report by the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council during a press conference today at Metro Beach in Harrison Township.

The report states that in 2004, there were 255 beach closings statewide and 234 closings in 2005, said Abby Rubley, Environment Michigan field organizer.

"It's good news for Michigan," she said. "We must be doing something right in the state between being more diligent and stopping sewage overflows, which is the No. 1 issue why beaches are closed."

Michigan reported 417 Great Lakes beaches for 2005, of which 47 percent -- or 197 beaches -- were monitored for E. coli at least once a week. Less than 1 percent were tested infrequently and 52 percent weren't monitored at all.

However, two Metro Detroit beaches exceeded the state's daily maximum bacterial standards in 2005 -- Macomb County's Metro Beach in Harrison Township and Blossom Heath Beach in St. Clair Shores.

Also, the NRDC named nine Michigan beaches -- all of which are in St. Clair County -- "beach buddies" for 2005 because they regularly monitored beach water quality, had no violations of public health standards and made significant progress to reduce pollution. Only 33 beaches nationwide were given the honor.

Only one Michigan beach -- Singing Bridge Beach in Arenac County -- was named a "beach bum" because it violated public health standards at least 50 percent of the time samples were taken.

"For swimming and tourism and recreation, which are so key to this state, you're safe to swim in our waters," Rubley said.

Overall, the number of all monitoring samples that exceeded the state's daily maximum bacterial standards dropped from 4 percent in 2004 to 3 percent in 2005, according to the report.

Still, beach closings are on the rise nationwide due to raw sewage dumps, she said.

There have been high amounts of rainfall this year, which often overwhelms waste water treatment facilities. In order to bypass the system, the sewage is dumped into waterways and causes beach closures.

"These problems are preventable," said Christy McGillivray, the Lake St. Clair community organizer with Clean Water Action.

"It would be a lot safer to swim if municipalities used soil and vegetation to capture and filter storm water at its source, and upgraded their aging sewer systems," McGillivray said.

You can reach Christina Stolarz at (586) 468-0343 or cstolarz@detnews.com.