NRDC to Release 21st Annual Vacation Beach Water Quality Report

Report to Identify “Superstar” and “Repeat Offender” Beaches, With 5-Star Rating Guide to 200 Popular Spots and Special Section on Oiled Shores of Gulf Coast

*Broadcast quality b-roll will be available*

Are beachgoers swimming in sewage or other dangerous pollution? Just in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, find out how America’s beaches fared in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 21st annual beach water report, “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches.”

This year’s national results will be released in a telephone briefing Wednesday, June 29.  

“Testing the Waters” will reveal which beaches in the region and across the country have pollution problems and which tested clean. Additionally, it will present beach closing, advisory and water monitoring data for more than 3,000 beach testing locations nationwide.

The report includes a 5-star rating guide to 200 popular U.S. beaches and, for the first time, NRDC will award a handful of the top-performing popular beach spots with “Superstar” status.

The report will also identify the top 10 “Repeat Offender” list of beaches that have reported persistently poor water quality year after year.

Similar to last year, the report will again include a special section dedicated to oil-related closures, advisories and notices in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil disaster.

WHAT:           A briefing on water quality at beaches nationwide from NRDC’s 21st Annual Testing the Waters report

WHO:             NRDC Water Program Director David Beckman

                        NRDC Senior Water Attorney Jon Devine

WHEN:           10 a.m. ET, Wednesday, June 29, 2011

WHERE:        Members of the press, please RSVP to kslusark@nrdc.org for call-in information.

NRDC will host press events for the release of regional findings from this year’s “Testing the Waters” report in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. For more information on these events, email Kate Slusark at kslusark@nrdc.org.

Local environmental groups partnering with NRDC on the release of the report will host events in other communities across the country. For more information on those events, email Robyn Fischer at rfischer@nrdc.org.