Are South Boston s Beaches the Cleanest Urban Beaches in the Na6on? This study was directed by Bruce Berman for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay This report was produced by Save the Harbor s 2015 policy intern Vincent Pei with contribubons from policy interns Jingwei Zhang, Mehar Kaur and Max Pohlman
The Challenge On June 23, 2011 Save The Harbor/Save the Bay stood with local, state and federal officials and cut the ribbon on the South Boston CSO Tunnel Project. You can find out more about the project at hrp://www.mwra.com/ At that Bme, Save the Harbor s Director of Strategy, CommunicaBons and Programs Bruce Berman made this bold claim: This project will make the beaches of South Boston the cleanest urban beaches in the country! You can read the quote in context at h:p://6nyurl.com/clean- at- last In 2015, Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay s policy staff and interns decided to test that claim to see if he was right. To do so we compared water quality on South Boston s Beaches with iconic urban beaches in New York, Virginia, Florida, California and Hawaii.
Scope We compared the results of water quality tests conducted on the South Boston Beaches during 2012, 2013 and 2014 with the results of water quality tests conducted during the same period at Coney Island Beach in New York Virginia Beach in Virginia South Beach in Miami, Florida Santa Monica Beach in California Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii
Defini6ons and Metrics For the purpose of this study, we defined an urban beach as a beach located in an urban seang affected by storm water discharge. We used the same metric we use in Save the Harbor/Save the Bay s annual Report Card on Water Quality on the Boston Harbor Region s Public Beaches, Overall Beach Safety, Which is defined as: The percentage of samples that do not exceed the daily maximum bacterial standard of 104 colony forming units (cfu) of Enterococcus per 100 ml of water.
Study Area South Boston Beaches (MA) includes M Street Beach, Carson Beach and City Point Coney Island Beach (NY) includes Coney Island Beach, ManhaRan Beach, Seagate Beach and Kingsborough Community College Beach Virginia Beach (VA) includes Virginia Beach, Chesapeake Beach, Chick s Beach, Croatan, Fort Story, Lesner Bridge East and LiRle Island Beach South Beach (FL) includes South Beach, Golden Beach, Haulover Beach, Surfside Beach, Collins Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach and North Shore Ocean Terrace Santa Monica Beach (CA) includes Santa Monica Beach, ManhaRan Beach, Venice Fishing Pier, Redondo Municipal Pier, Marina del Rey and Cabrillo Beach Waikiki Beach includes Kahanamoku Beach, Kuhio Beach, Public Bath Beach and Moana Beach.
Data Sources Data sources for 2012 and 2013 South Boston Beaches (MA): Department of ConservaBon and RecreaBon (DCR) and MassachuseRs Water Resources Authority (MWRA) Coney Island Beach (NY): NRDC TesBng the Waters Database Virginia Beach (VA): NRDC TesBng the Waters Database South Beach (FL): Florida State Department of Health Santa Monica Beach (CA): Heal the Bay s (a non- profit environmental group) database Waikiki Beach (HI): Hawaii State Department of Health Data sources for 2014 South Boston Beaches (MA): Department of ConservaBon and RecreaBon (DCR) and MassachuseRs Water Resources Authority (MWRA) All the other data is from EPA s Beach Advisory and Closing Online NoBficaBon system (BEACON), hrp://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/, except that the data from Coney Island Beach in New York is from the New York State Department of Health.
Results
Results DATE South Boston Beach, MA Virginia Beach, VA South Beach, FL Waikiki Beach, HI Coney Island Beach, NY Santa Monica Beach, CA 2014 100.00% 95.22% 96.29% 96.41% 94.49% 83.40% 2013 99.15% 97.00% 97.41% 98.61% 92.00% 83.02% 2012 99.12% 99.00% 97.57% 96.63% 96.00% 82.40% 3- yr Average 99.42% 97.07% 97.09% 97.22% 94.16% 82.94%
Results
Conclusion Though we were unable to examine data from every urban beach in America for this report, based on the data for the iconic beaches we examined, the bold claim we made is true. From 2012 2014, the South Boston Beaches were, consistently cleaner than the other iconic American beaches we examined, with a three year overall beach safety average of 99.42%, making them the cleanest urban beaches in America.
For more informabon on this report please visit our website at www.savetheharbor.org or contact Bruce Berman at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay by email to bruce@bostonharbor.com You can download a copy of our most recent Beaches Report Card on water quality and flagging accuracy on the Boston Harbor Region s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket at www.savetheharbor.org/content/beachesreportcard/