Michigan Beaches Need Your Help (Summer is Short)

Here's a new, pitiful cliché: If April showers bring May flowers, what do June showers bring? Beach closures.

It's a sad fact that Michigan has a short summer season, often marked by beach closures due to contamination from sewage overflows, runoff and failing septic systems. We're the Great Lakes state, with vast stretches of shoreline and beautiful inland lakes and rivers. But too often those water bodies are closed or put under advisory due to contamination.

Take a look at the Michigan BeachGuard system. It tracks E. coli bacteria testing by county health departments. That testing usually starts on Memorial Day (May 31, 2010) and runs through Labor Day in September. 

As of this writing, there are six closures across the state, in Macomb, Bay, Osceola, Ottawa and Van Buren counties. Beaches are closed or put under advisory based on the amount of E. coli colonies found during daily testing, and also based on monthly averages of those tests. This gets kind of nasty, but suffice it to say that coming into contact with water that has too many colonies of this fecal indicator bacteria can make you sick. 

This is an issue that anyone should be able to wrap their arms around. Clean up Michigan's beaches. Fully fund testing by health departments (Not all beaches are tested now due to lack of funds). Enforce clean water laws and provide support for infrastructure improvements. Keeping Michigan pure costs money, and it deserves everyone's attention, even after summer is over. Have you ever drilled a hole for ice fishing and found something brown? Not an ice angler? Where does your drinking water come from?

The Michigan League of Conservation Voters works to make sure legislators and state policy makers are doing all they can to protect and clean up the state's beaches.

When you go to work during the week and look forward to the weekend, and a little beach time with your wife, husband, kids or friends, think about that. And think about joining us, by bookmarking this website, following our Twitter or Facebook updates, becoming an official MLCV member or donating to our organization.

Yes, this is a self-serving message. We want to keep our organization strong so we can continue to focus on keeping Michigan's natural resources strong. And so we can cool off on a hot day, or enjoy a fishing trip. And so can you. 

--- Image Credit: stevendepolo via Flickr.