The Cleaner Beach

So water quality testing has been happening here at Menominee Park Beach for a year now. And while its unfortunate that effort wasn't put into making the results accessible to the public, the testing did reveal that for the most park the water was very good this past year - at least in terms of e.coli bacteria (note that with a little more effort, the results can very easily be made available online and on site for people to access).

And as our beach had fewer than 2 tests that showed a concern for water quality, many beaches in Wisconsin have water quality concerns over 25% of the time. A release that I recently stumbled upon that discusses a national survey of beach water quality ranks Wisconsin 26 out of 30 (which is also translated as "shitty" - pardon any pun). The survey, in its 19th year and completed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, states that "13 percent of beaches in Wisconsin on lakes Michigan and Superior violated public health standards for swimming, which is nearly twice the national average".

In conclusion, we recommend that you forget that Polar Plunge in Manitowoc on Lake Michigan (note that Manitowoc County has two of the "top five dirtiest beaches") and enjoy the cool, clean Lake Winnebago ice water this winter. It is the Cleaner Beach.

Oh, and the survey, which is now several months old, is available here: http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/titinx.asp

Posted in: sustainability,Water