Ocean City and resorts in neighbor-
ing Delaware are listed among 13
destinations to earn a perfect 5-Star
rating in an annual report released
this week on water quality at popu-
lar beaches around the country.
cation Beaches," an independent
report released on Wednesday by
the Natural Resources Defense
Council, water quality at beaches in
Ocean City earned a perfect 5-Star
rating again in 2012 for at least the
third consecutive year. For the 23rd
year in a row, the NRDC reviewed
data supplied by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to rate wa-
ter quality at beaches on a variety of
standards including acceptable lev-
els of bacteria, frequency of moni-
toring and numbers of closures and
advisories over the course of the
year.
twice a week during the summer
season for a total of 27 samples
taken. At each site and at each loca-
tion, Ocean City's beaches exceed-
ed the acceptable state and federal
standards zero percent of the time
and there were no closures or advi-
sory days. Similarly, three locations
week during 2012 and zero samples
exceeded the standards and no clo-
sures or advisories were issued.
beaches were the neighboring re-
sorts of Dewey Beach and Reho-
both. It's important to note nearby
Fenwick Island and Bethany Beach
also had zero samples exceeding
the acceptable standards and is-
sued no closures or advisory days,
but were not included on the NR-
DC's list of 13 "Superstar" beaches
in the report.
report, the same cannot be said for
many of the beach destinations a-
round the country. According to the
report, America's beaches collec-
tively experienced 20,000 closing
and advisory days in 2012 for the
third consecutive year because of
polluted water or threatened con-
tamination. Over 80 percent of the
closings and advisories were issued
because testing revealed bacteria
levels violated public health stan-
dards.
cation real fast, turning a day of
lounging at the beach into a day at
the doctor's office with a sick child,"
said NRDC Senior Attorney Jon
Devine. "It's no surprise that pollu-
tion in the waves is bad for business
in resort communities."