--- title: Beaches: 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fail Water-Safety Standards description: New research has concluded that 10% of the country's beaches are polluted, exposing swimmers to risk of infection and disease canonical: https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-26T03:44:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:38:07.244Z article:section: Science og:title: Beaches: 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fail Water-Safety Standards og:description: New research has concluded that 10% of the country's beaches are polluted, exposing swimmers to risk of infection and disease og:url: https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt459b596ff4921a97/69869958d0b6f2ca67305048/coney-island.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: People crowd the beach at Coney Island on Memorial Day May 26, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beaches: 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fail Water-Safety Standards twitter:description: New research has concluded that 10% of the country's beaches are polluted, exposing swimmers to risk of infection and disease twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt459b596ff4921a97/69869958d0b6f2ca67305048/coney-island.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Water at 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fails to Make the Grade > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 26, 2014 3:44 AM UTC  People crowd the beach at Coney Island on Memorial Day May 26, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. People crowd the beach at Coney Island on Memorial Day May 26, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.Eric Thayer—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 26, 2014 3:44 AM UTC If you swim at 10 different U.S. beaches, you could end up getting a stomach bug, conjunctivitis or even something more serious from one of them. [New research](http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ngarrison/nrdc%5Fbeach%5Fwater%5Fquality%5Frepor.html) from the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, has concluded that 10% of the country’s coastal and lakefront beaches fail to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s water-safety standards—in other words, they’re ripe with bacteria. Things are particularly bad in New England, on the Gulf Coast and along the Great Lakes, according to the data. The major culprit is stormwater runoff, which inevitably ends up in the ocean after picking up garbage, oil and waste products from both humans and animals along the way. Making matters worse are the [hundreds of billions of gallons of sewage](http://www.americanrivers.org/assets/pdfs/Health%5FRisks%5Fof%5FSewage%5Ffact%5Fsheetb119.pdf) that go untreated annually, ending up in water and causing 3.5 million Americans to fall ill each year. Federal law requires all states to test their beach water for bacteria, and respond accordingly when levels are too high. In 2012, [nearly 2,000 beaches](http://skift.com/2013/06/27/study-says-pollution-closed-1800-new-york-and-new-jersey-beaches-last-year/) were closed in New York and New Jersey alone as a result of pollution. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/"},"headline":"Water at 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fails to Make the Grade","datePublished":"2014-06-26T03:44:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:38:07.244Z","description":"Things are particularly bad in New England, on the Gulf Coast and along the Great Lakes","url":"https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/","keywords":["Environment","Pollution","U.S.","Oceans","Pacific"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt459b596ff4921a97/69869958d0b6f2ca67305048/coney-island.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt459b596ff4921a97/69869958d0b6f2ca67305048/coney-island.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People crowd the beach at Coney Island on Memorial Day May 26, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.","caption":"People crowd the beach at Coney Island on Memorial Day May 26, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.","creditText":"Eric Thayer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2925358/us-beach-pollution/","name":"Water at 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fails to Make the Grade"}}]}] ```