Three stretches of Alabama’s coastline earned national recognition for clean water, standing out among thousands of beaches surveyed across the country. In an annual water-quality study, the Natural Resources Defense Council named two Gulf Shores beaches and the public beach on Dauphin Island as “superstars,” a designation reserved for the nation’s most consistently clean coastal waters.
The recognition came in the environmental group’s report, “2014 Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches.” The council singled out Gulf Shores’ public beach and the Gulf State Park Pavilion, along with Dauphin Island’s beach, placing them among just 35 superstar beaches selected after an analysis of 3,485 coastal sites nationwide.
Pride along the coast
Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft welcomed the honor. “As a city, we take great pride in our beaches,” Craft said in a prepared statement. “Our staff works extremely hard to provide some of the country’s most pristine beaches to our residents and visitors. Receiving this ranking from the NRDC is an exceptional honor and is truly a credit to our entire team.”
How the rankings worked
To qualify as superstars, beaches had to clear a demanding standard. The council selected sites that had not exceeded the previous national bacteria threshold of 104 enterococcus colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water between 2009 and 2012 by more than 2 percent, and that also had not exceeded the newer, stricter Beach Action Value by more than 2 percent in the most recent year.
That newer benchmark, the Beach Action Value, sets a more protective threshold of 60 enterococcus colony-forming units per 100 milliliters, reflecting the Environmental Protection Agency’s tightened water-quality guidance. Exposure to bacteria, viruses and parasites in contaminated water, the report warned, can cause a range of illnesses, from ear, nose and eye infections to gastrointestinal and respiratory problems.
A mixed picture statewide
The honors stood in contrast to Alabama’s overall standing. In 2013, the state monitored 97 coastal beaches, and 11 percent of samples exceeded the Beach Action Value. Alabama ranked 17th out of 30 states in beach water quality.
The report also flagged the state’s lowest-performing sites in 2013. Among them were May Day Park on Mobile Bay in Daphne, which exceeded the bacteria threshold in 19 percent of its samples; Fowl River at Highway 193 in Mobile County (19 percent); Pirate’s Cove in Josephine on Arnica Bay (19 percent); Volanta Avenue in Fairhope on Mobile Bay (19 percent); Orange Beach Waterfront Park on Wolf Bay (18 percent); and Spanish Cove in Lillian on Perdido Bay (18 percent).
According to the council, the leading cause of beach closings nationwide is stormwater runoff, with untreated sewage spills and overflows frequently prompting advisories and closures. The full report was made available online with an interactive map pinpointing more than 3,000 beaches along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes.
A draw for visitors
For Gulf Shores and Dauphin Island, both anchors of Alabama’s coastal tourism economy, the superstar designation offered a marketable point of pride heading into the busy summer season. Clean water is central to the appeal of the state’s beaches, and a national nod on that measure carried weight with the families and vacationers who fill the shoreline each year.
The recognition also underscored the ongoing work behind the scenes, from monitoring programs to stormwater management, that helps keep the water safe for swimmers along a coast where the beach is both a way of life and an economic engine.