The Massachusetts Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, The Environmental League of Massachusetts, and MASSPIRG are asking for your support of the Beaches Bill, H. 3134. The purpose of the Beaches Bill is to require uniform criteria and procedures for testing, monitoring, and posting of coastal and inland public beaches. The bill will protect public safety, improve environmental quality through identification of pollution sources, and will provide resources to municipalities to help with testing.

Many beaches become polluted from stormwater runoff and raw sewage overflows. Approximately 26 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage is discharged with each heavy rainfall. This equates to approximately 1.1 billion gallons discharged annually. Despite this threat to public health, nearly half of the beaches in the state are not tested once a week. They are often tested using an outmoded and inaccurate test and most polluted beaches in the state are NOT posted with warning signs.

Massachusetts’s beach resources have tremendous economic value – coastal tourists spend $1.5 billion each year. Statewide, millions of residents and international tourists will visit the Commonwealth’s beaches this summer, yet most of them will not know whether the water they enter is contaminated by disease-causing pathogens.

• Beach tourism is an important part of the Massachusetts economy.
• This revenue is heavily dependent upon a healthy, unpolluted environment.
• Currently, throughout Massachusetts we do not have accurate, consistent, uniform monitoring of public recreational waters and notification of contaminated beaches so we don’t know whether the water is safe and unpolluted.
• Without uniform testing of beach waters, we cannot deal with the problem itself – eliminating sources of pollution.

The Beaches Bill requires (1) uniform water quality standards for coastal and inland public beach waters; (2) establishment of consistent beach water testing procedures; and (3) the public to be informed about unsafe waters by posting notices at beaches when the water is polluted. The bill also includes funding for municipalities to implement the requirements.

The Beaches Bill is currently in House Ways and Means awaiting action. It establishes a common-sense, statewide approach to the problems of inconsistent beach water quality testing and public notification. It will help protect the public's health, ensure the public's right to know about beach water quality, and aid in the identification and elimination of sources of pollution. We only have until July 31 to get action on this bill! This is why we strongly urge you to act now to support the Beaches Bill.