The 2024 Clean Water Report by Surfrider Foundation shows America's beach bacteria hotspots

Americans love the beach. Every year, more than 100 million beach visitors flock to us on the beach to enjoy sand, sunshine and water. At Surfrider, we believe that every access to clean water should have to surf, swim and play. The improvement of coastal water quality has been one of our top priorities since the Surfrider Foundation was founded in 1984.

With the Memorial Day weekend, which starts the unofficial start to the summer, the Surfrider Foundation publishes our report on Clean Water 2024 to raise awareness of problems that influence water quality and health on the beach. This comprehensive annual report underlines the successes of our Blue Water Task Force (BwTF) and Ocean -friendly gardens (OFG) programs in 2024 and features case studies of chapters that use these programs for clean water to combine local pollution problems with solutions.

In 2024, 60 BWTF laboratories processed 10,120 water samples, which were taken from 604 different sampling points. Once again, the chapters of the Surfrider Foundation broke all previous test documents with more laboratories, more sampling points and more water qualification tests than ever. A New Lab was founded in Isabela, Puerto Rico, and the O'ahu chapter started a new laboratory on the Wai'anae High School. The Coos Bay Chapter in Oregon and Sonoma Coast Chapter in California also restarted its programs. Find out more about these new programs Here.

Laboratory locations of the Blue Water Task Force Labor

Chapter BWTF programs are designed in such a way that they fill the gaps and expand the reporting on the agency's state and local beach programs. Volunteers of the Surfrider Foundation test beaches that are not covered by agencies, and also monitor potential sources of pollution such as rainwater outlets, rivers and streams that are released on the beach. The Blue Water Task Force is operated on all year round and offers the protection of public health in the low season when lifeguards leave the beach and the health careers stop collecting water samples. Last year, 80% of the beaches and sampling (483 of 604) tested showed at least one result with high bacteria that exceeded state health standards. This shows how important the regular monitoring of water quality on the beach is for the protection of public health and secure recovery. Unfortunately, the president's budget proposal for the next year (GJ 2026) contains all funds for the beach law of EPA that financed the surveillance of the beach quality and public notification programs in 35 coastal states and territories – the families on the beaches of America could blindly leave problems for contamination.

Please close Surfrider in Call the congress The Trump management proposal to reduce the financing for the EPA and to support robust funds for the Beach Act and other Clean Water programs. Everyone deserves to enjoy a funny day on the beach without worrying that they are suspended by pollution.

The 2024 Clean Water report has ten beach bacteria hot spots from the east coast, west coast, Puerto Rico and Hawai''I, where the chapters of the Surfrider Foundation consistently measure high bacterial values ​​that exceed the state health standards for leisure water. These beach bacteria are a variety of leisure waters and access points that are important for local communities. However, public health could endanger the conditions of water quality.

Surfriders 2024 Beach Bacteria Hot Spots

On each of these beaches, volunteers in Surfrider Foundation Chapter work hard to raise awareness of the pollution problems and to offer their communities critical information on public health. The ultimate goal is to use BWTF data to find and fix the sources of contamination and to prioritize local efforts to restore clean water on site.

Pre -tromny surf rider chapter dug into their ocean -friendly gardens programs to solve problems with water quality caused by rainwater and urban drainage. Chapter Use this Program for the protection of clean water and support from resistant coasts and communities.

Basis and programs are working hard to ensure that the beaches and the ocean are clean and safe so that all people can enjoy over generations. Learn more about how the national network of surfid coastal lawyers struggles at local, state and federal level to protect clean water in the 2024 annual report. Case studies characteristic:

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