The Massachusetts Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation is asking for your support and co-sponsorship of the Beaches Bill. The purpose of the Beaches Bill is to require uniform criteria and procedures for testing, monitoring, and posting of coastal recreation waters at beaches open for use by the public to protect public safety and improve environmental quality.

Despite the massive expenditure of nearly 4 billion dollars to clean up Boston Harbor, citizens must use extreme caution with regard to ocean-related recreation like swimming and surfing, because many beaches become polluted from stormwater runoff and raw sewage overflows into coastal waters. 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 major threat to public health, most of the polluted beaches in the country are NOT posted with warning signs.

Massachusetts’s coastal 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 and coasts this summer, yet most of them will not know whether the water they enter is contaminated by disease-causing pathogens.

The issue is:

• Coastal tourism is an important part of the Massachusetts economy.
• This revenue is heavily dependent upon a healthy, unpolluted coastal 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 beach waters; (2) establishment of consistent beach water testing procedures; and (3) informing the public about unsafe waters by posting notices at beaches when standards are violated.

Your support on this bill is critical. This legislation will ultimately protect one of our most valuable assets – our ocean waters. The Beaches bill 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. For these reasons, we strongly urge you to join Representative Doug Petersen in sponsoring and actively supporting the Beaches Bill.