Waves of Thanks for a Successful 30th Fall Beach Sweeps

On Saturday, October 24th, close to 3,000 volunteers hit the beaches to participate in Clean Ocean Action's 30th Annual Fall Beach Sweeps at over 65 sites from Essex County to Cape May County. Volunteers removed and catalogued each piece of debris, helping to document ongoing pollution issues. Robust crowds were reported up and down the coast. Many volunteers came as teams from local businesses, corporate and grassroots organizations, school and church groups, and families, all with personal ties to the Shore and some with decades of Sweeps participation.

Special thanks to the Beach Captains who helped make this event so successful. Beach Captains, lead volunteers who direct the entire group of participants at each Beach Sweeps location, are essential to the program’s success. They are the heart and soul of Beach Sweeps. These dedicated volunteers coordinate and manage all of the volunteers on the day of the event, answer questions from the volunteers about ocean pollution and serve as COA representatives.

On Sandy Hook alone, Beach Sweep volunteers picked up: 5,846 plastic pieces, 5,324 food/candy wrappers, 4,785 caps/lids, 2,206 straws/stirrers, 1,879 cigarette filters, and 1,047 plastic beverage/soda bottles.

The next Beach Sweeps will be on Saturday, April 30^th. In the meantime, join us at the Debris Free Sea Conference on November 11, 2015. 

NRDC "Testing the Waters" Report Released: How Does Your Beach Rank?

Today, the NRDC published their 23^rd annual beachwater quality report. The report analyzes water quality and number of beach closings and swimming advisories at 3,000 US beach locations. Closing and swimming advisories are caused from polluted water and threat of contamination. Stormwater runoff and sewage are sources of contamination.  The NRDC also rates the 200 most popular beaches based on water quality, testing practices, and public notifications over the last five years. No NY/NJ beaches received a perfect rating; however, 14 did receive 4:5 stars. Two of NY/NJ beaches were within the top 11 beaches that violated standards.

Each of the 30 states evaluated for this report were ranked according to the number of water quality samples violating the EPA’s federal standards. The lowest ranked state has the fewest violations. Based on data for 2012, NY is ranked 22^nd and NJ is ranked 7^th. Last year, NY and NJ had 1,871 closing and advisory days. Violations per county were evaluated for each state: Monroe County, NY and Ocean County, NJ had the most violations.

One strategy to reduce water contamination is green infrastructure, which reduces stormwater. New York has already finalized a plan for green infrastructure projects and we hope New Jersey will do the same.  

Click here to read the press release. 

Superfund Advocate and Hartwick College Grad Joins Clean Ocean Action's Summer Crew

Rebecka Flynn - Cornell University Class of 2014 - Science and Policy Intern

Since I can remember I was always within nature, be it from riding horses competitively, swimming outside, playing softball, going to summer camps; I was always involved with nature in some manner, and it lead to me being very protective of the environment. I would constantly see housing developments built around my house, until finally the mountain that my town is at the foot of was no longer woods filled with wildlife, but instead of filled with townhouses and paved roads. Around this time I became involved more with the environmental movement, and wanting to see it protected and allowed to flourish. I also come from a town, Middlesex, NJ, which has a two superfund sites, one of which is a nuclear site related to the Manhattan project.  The fact that this site was still not cleaned up despite it being from the 1940’s, angered me, and waked something in me that wanted to advocate for the people and give them a voice.

Currently I am in a Masters of Public Administration program at Cornell University with a focus on Environmental Policy. For my undergraduate degrees I went to Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY.  While at Hartwick, I also was the President of the Environmental club on campus, Grassroots, and was on the student-faculty committee dedicated to environmental sustainability and programming on campus.

I wanted to intern at Clean Ocean Action because of the dedication the organization has to ensuring that there are clean oceans for current and future generations. Here at Clean Ocean Action, I am the Science and Policy Research Intern. I am writing position papers for Clean Ocean Action on several different issues ranging from dredging to LNG to clean beaches.   It is something I am passionate about and am excited to come to work every day to help in Clean Ocean Action’s fight against ocean pollution.