It’s a scorching August day, and my childhood friend, Grace, and I are flying down the freeway on our annual summer road trip from Austin to Port Aransas on the Texas coast. We stumble over each other to share every detail from the preceding months – new classes, new clubs, new friends. To keep ourselves entertained, we tell stories, play music, listen to podcasts (aliens, ancient pyramids and dinosaurs in Central Park are all recent topics), and write our own songs, inventing lyrics inspired by the names on road signs whizzing by.
This is our time to reconnect.
After a journey so full of words and music, our time at Port Aransas Beach, by contrast, is marked by silence. Conversation fades as we settle into the warm sand. The beach seems to extend forever into the blue horizon. Families dot the coastline around us with colorful umbrellas, soaking up the sun. Grace and I draw and paint colorful landscapes between swims in the gentle waves.
When you think of Texas, your first thought may not be of the beach. You may picture expansive grassland or ranches full of cows. We have these things too, of course. But further south, within driving distance of major cities like Austin, Houston, and Dallas, is a line of beaches on the coast where people gather every year. In addition to Port Aransas, popular beach towns include South Padre, Rockport, and Galveston. Texas beaches not only provide opportunities for relaxing, enjoying the sea breeze or taking a dip in the water. They also help local businesses thrive as beach-goers grab refreshments, stock-up on beach supplies and use local services.
But working on our clean water team this summer has made me aware of an invisible force that poses a threat to my cherished annual trip and Texans’ enjoyment of the beach: fecal bacteria.
Texas’ big beach bacteria problem
I learned that 94% of coastal Texas beaches tested posed risks to swimmers at least once last year due to high levels of fecal bacteria, according to the new Safe for Swimming? report by Environment Texas Research & Policy Center. Nearly half of these beaches had potentially unsafe levels of bacteria on least 25% of the days tested. (I was relieved to find that Port Aransas Beach was not among them.)
More broadly, 84 percent of Gulf Coast beaches tested last year had at least one day where fecal bacteria exceeded the safety threshold used in the report. That “Beach Action Value” is a level of bacteria that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) associates with 32 illnesses per 1000 swimmers.
While the report’s data is from last year, there have been alarming bacteria levels at Texas beaches this summer too. Over the July 4th weekend, beaches on Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, and South Padre Island reported elevated fecal matter levels. Texas Beach Watch data earlier this summer also showed elevated bacteria levels at beaches off Galveston Island.
Texans can find recent water testing results through the Texas Beach Watch program. However, residents should know that the Texas state standard is less protective than the Beach Action Value used in the Safe for Swimming? report. So fecal levels could still be potentially unsafe even when the state does not issue a health advisory.
How does bacteria get to the beach?
Common sources of this nasty bacteria include sewage overflows and stormwater runoff. Bacteria levels often spike after a heavy rain, as sewage systems are overwhelmed and runoff volume increases. Unfortunately, coastal Texans are all too familiar with the type of severe storms that raise the risk of beach contamination. This spring, for example, Boca Chica beach showed fecal bacterial levels 240 times the acceptable limit after a flooding event. As storms grow more intense, water contamination could get worse, leaving our beaches increasingly unsafe.
How do we make sure Texas beaches are safe for swimming?
That’s why we need to improve our wastewater infrastructure. Repairing and upgrading sewage and stormwater management systems can help to dramatically reduce contamination at our favorite beaches. Texas will need nearly $19 billion over the next 20 years to manage its wastewater and stormwater pollution, according to the EPA’s latest survey of state infrastructure needs. Yet Texas currently receives less than 20% of this annualized cost from the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF).
And even that modest funding is at risk. On July 21st, the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that would slash funding for the Clean Water SRF by 26%.
Each time I drive home from Port Aransas, my hair drying in loopy saltwater curls, I watch the pastel houses shrink in the rearview mirror and I feel happy knowing that we’ll do it all again next year
We shouldn’t have to risk our health to enjoy the simple pleasures of a trip to the beach. Yet every year, millions of Americans get sick from doing just that.
Let’s hope Congress not only rejects the drastic water infrastructure cuts now on the table, but commits to the additional funding needed to make sure Port Aransas Beach, and all of America’s beaches, are safe for swimming.
