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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Coastal Caucus and one of the authors of the Beaches Environmental Assessment Closure and Health (BEACH) Act, today was critical of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for delaying progress on new beach testing methods mandated in the BEACH Act.
The New Jersey congressman said the results of the environmental agency's study are essential before Congress can begin working on reauthorizing the BEACH Act next year. The BEACH Act required that the EPA produce a report for Congress within four years of enactment, which would have been October 2004. The report was to include recommendations for new water quality criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators, as well as suggestions to improve methodologies for monitoring coastal recreational waters.
In response to a letter Pallone wrote to EPA Acting Administrator Steven Johnson in May asking for an update on the report, EPA Assistant Administrator Benjamin H. Grumbles informed Pallone in a letter he received this week that the EPA has completed three years of data collection at four beaches in the Great Lakes, and has now begun several studies in coastal areas.
Grumbles did write that he expected EPA would send its report, as required, to Congress later this year, "assuming the technical results are found to be sufficiently robust and that there is no need for additional data collection." Pallone is concerned that, according to Grumbles, EPA is only beginning to conduct its first studies outside the Great Lakes region and sent another letter to Grumbles today asking for more details on EPA's plans. (A COPY OF THE LETTER FOLLOWS)
"While I understand that scientific research is a time-consuming process, I am disappointed that you have not yet completed any sampling or studies in coastal areas other than freshwater beaches along the Great Lakes," Pallone said. "Such epidemiological studies are of critical importance in my state of New Jersey, where we face numerous coastal beach closures each summer."
Grumbles also responded to Pallone's inquiry into EPA's efforts to develop instantaneous water quality tests. The assistant administrator wrote that the agency "agrees there is a need for rapid methods to assess recreational water quality," and that the "need to identify and validate rapid methods (those taking less than two hours) has been a primary goal of the research effort."
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"New research on quicker, more comprehensive water quality testing procedures is essential to ensure the highest levels of health and safety for beachgoers in New Jersey and around the country," Pallone wrote.
Current water quality monitoring tests, like those used in New Jersey, only test for bacteria levels and take 24 to 48 hours to produce reliable results, during which time many beachgoers can be unknowingly exposed to harmful pathogens. Immediate results would prevent beaches from remaining open when high levels of bacteria are found. |
