Racine Makes Every Day “A Day at the Beach”
By Racine (WI) Mayor Gary Becker, Walter McLeod, Clean Beaches Council, and Dr. Julie Kinzelman, Racine Health Department
July 3, 2006
Racine is the first beach in the state of Wisconsin to become certified through the national Blue Wave Campaign.
Blue Wave is America’s first environmental certification program for beaches. It is a best management practices approach to improve the environmental quality of public beaches. The Blue Wave ethic seeks to establish a set of values that can be adopted by beach managers and visitors alike to keep our beaches clean and healthy.
Beaches participating in Blue Wave agree to implement specific criteria based on the following best management practices:
Although Racine had a comprehensive monitoring program for the protection of public health prior to becoming Blue Wave, the public expressed concern over the number of water quality advisories issued each swimming season. Loss of utility of public bathing beaches impacts the sustainability of a community. While the negative effect of pollutant discharge on the environment is an obvious adverse outcome, social equity and economic development are also affected.
Free access to public bathing beaches provides a recreational outlet and an escape from sweltering heat for those segments of the population without air conditioning and without access to clubs and organizations requiring membership fees. Economic development is impacted as loss of utility equals economic loss in both the monetary and non-monetary sense.
Several studies have shown that closed beaches represent an economic loss of millions of dollars each year. Additionally, citizens of coastal communities view access to beaches as a condition of their residence and, therefore, the closure of a beach is perceived as a loss of a benefit. Benefits such as clean and healthy beaches can retain young professionals within their community, increase tourism dollars, as well as contribute to the overall attractiveness of a city to new business.
Because of the benefits derived from clean and healthy beaches, the City of Racine began investigative studies to determine the sources of contamination impacting the coastal waters of Lake Michigan. The determination of direct and indirect pollution sources was a crucial first step in initiating the remediation measures necessary to improve recreational water quality. Using a combination of monitoring strategies for fecal indicator bacteria, sanitary surveys, microbial source tracking, and predictive modeling, the city was able to pinpoint those sources which were most frequently implicated in beach advisories and closures. Topping the list was a storm water outfall emptying directly into Lake Michigan between the two public bathing beaches (North and Zoo Beach) and the near shore beach sands.
Health Department records from 200 revealed that E. Coli concentration in storm water from this outfall exceeded 1000 cfu/100 ml 78 percent of the time (the USEPA standard for issuing a bathing water quality advisory is 235 MPM/100 ml). Remediation by the Department of Public Works began in the autumn of 2000 with the installation of two Vortechs systems to remove solid wastes and a series of infiltration and evaporation basins to retain first flush storm water. In the spring of 2001 citizen volunteers were enlisted to begin vegetating the basins with native wetland plants with additional plants being added through the autumn of 2004.
Another volunteer effort undertaken by a citizen group, Keep Our Beaches Open, was to placard all of the city storm drains with informational signs reading “No Dumping, Drains to Lake.” It was hoped that this public education initiative would increase awareness of the private practices on coastal environments.
As a result of these actions, the percent of days with E. Coli concentrations exceeding 1000 MPN/ 100 ml had decreased to 14 percent in 2005.
Beach sands in coastal areas are frequently home to shore birds, such as seagulls. Seagulls can provide a fecal burden to beach sands and their control is important where they have been proven to adversely impact surface water quality. In Racine, public ordinances have been enacted to prohibit the feedings of seagulls as well to increase the number of waste receptacles in high-use areas. Despite these measures, there was a need to reduce the impact of bacteria transported from beach sands to bathing waters. To that end, the City of Racine Health Department initiated a multi-year study on the impacts of current beach grooming practices on E. Coli concentrations in beach sands.
The results indicated that while beach sands had been maintained for the removal of hazardous debris for 25 years, the manner in which this was done (leveling and compacting) increased fecal indicator populations, especially when sands were wet. An alternative method of deeper grooming without leveling and compacting provided the same benefit with regard to the removal of hazardous waste but also reduced the number of dry weather advisories (those not associated with rainfall) by 30 percent.
Another beach management technique used in Racine to reduce bacterial indicator concentration in beach sands was to adjust the grade of the beach to increase the berm crest, the area where the beach slopes down to meet the water, and remove any large swales which may retain water and prevent the Parks and Recreation Department staff from grooming the beach in the manner previously described (see Clean Beaches Council report, 2005 State of the Beach Report: Bacteria and Sand).
In Racine, public concern, political will, and the efforts of both various city departments and private citizens has allowed us to improve our beach management techniques, initiate remediation, and provide better public education resulting in less water quality advisories.
Certification as a Blue Water Beach by the Clean Beaches Council has restored public confidence and our beaches are once again a focal point of our community.
The commitment to keep Wisconsin’s most beautiful beach community asset has paid off. On summer weekends thousands of visitors flock to the beach. The Spirit of Racine Triathlon starts in the waters and ends on the sands of North Beach.
A pro volleyball tour stop has been added this year, which should connect another 10,000 people to the beach. The lake is our greatest asset and we are now spending the time and energy on it that it deserves.
For more information on Racine’s Best Practice, contact Dr. Julie Kinzelman of the Racine Health Department/Laboratory at Julie.kinzelman@cityofracine.org, 262-636-9501 or Walter McLeod of the Clean Beaches Council at info@cleanbeaches.org, 202-682-9507.
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