Time to Clean Up Our Beaches

 

I don't know about your but I am tired of seeing Closed signs at our beaches. That is why I decided to introduce a resolution last Thursday night to require Safer Beach Plans for the nine Dane County beaches that have been closed for some days this summer due to high E. Coli and Blue-Green Algae levels.

 

"We all deserve beaches safe and one goal of the Clean Water Act is to make all beaches safe for swimming," said Dr. Thomas Schlenker, Public Health of Madison and Dane County director.

 

These nine beaches are listed on the DNR Impaired list and have been closed for some days during the summer: Bernies, Brittingham, Esther Park, Olbrich Park, Olin Park on Lake Monona, Marshall Park, James Madison Park, Spring Harbor on Lake Mendota, and Vilas Park on Lake Wingra.

 

Those of us who love the lakes for swimming, boating and fishing know we need to do more to make our beaches safer for swimming. This resolution will create clean up plans for these beaches over the next two years so we can make them safer for swimming and other recreation.

 

The safer beach plans could consider installing storm sewer outfalls controls near beaches, controlling parking lot runoff, controlling geese and other natural sources of nutrients and pathogens, educating people about proper diaper usage and disposal and animal feeding, and other measures needed to reduce contaminant levels and make the beach safer for swimming.

"The good news is there are practical solutions like cleaning up storm sewers, not feeding geese to limit manure, creating raingardens, and reducing carp," said Supervisor Chuck Erickson, who represents the Vilas area. "These efforts have reduced beach closings at Vilas Beach and helped clean up Lake Wingra. Now we need safer beach plans for all our closed beaches."

Additionally, the plans will include estimated costs and potential methods to pay for further analysis and possible cleanup of the nine impaired beaches.

"Nothing beats enjoying a sunny, summer day along one of our beaches," County Executive Kathleen Falk said. "That's why it's so important we continue to work hard to keep our lakes blue and make our beaches beautiful."

We don't want our beaches to look like pea soup any days of the year. These Safer Beach Plans will give us a prescription to clean them up.

I appreciate the support of Dane County Supervisors Chuck Erickson, Dianne Hesselbein, Melanie Hampton, Robin Schmidt, Paul Rusk, Wyndham Manning, Tom Stoebig, Dave de Felice, Elaine DeSmidt, Patrick Miles, Carousel Bayrd, Jeremy Levin, Pat Downing, Dorothy Wheeler, Al Matano, Mark Opitz, and Gerry Jensen.

 

The County Board will consider the measure in the coming weeks. The text of the resolution is below.

 

For more on beaches, go to www.publichealthmdc.com/environmental/water/beaches.

 

You can see the Channel 27 News story on this effort at www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11244433.

 

RESOLUTION FOR SAFER BEACHES AND CLEANER LAKES

 
 

 

Safe beaches for swimming are a Clean Water Act goal and a priority for Dane County. Based on elevated bacteria levels from 2005 through 2007, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources included these 9 city beaches on the state's impaired waters list for 2008:

 
 

Lake                            Beach Name       

LAKE MONONA      Bernies, Brittingham, Esther Park, Olbrich Park, Olin Park  

LAKE MENDOTA    Marshall Park, James Madison Park, Spring Harbor

LAKE WINGRA        Vilas Park

 

The Yahara Capitol Lakes Environmental Assessment and Needs (CLEAN) agreement made improving beach health a priority. The Yahara CLEAN beaches team reviewed all the impaired beaches for treatment possibilities and determined that Bernie's and Vilas Beaches have the most viable treatment options.

 

There are many sources of beach pollution including uncontrolled storm water runoff. To address this, Dane County has made 18 Urban Water Quality grants to address storm sewer outfalls. The City of Madison has also installed controls at approximately eight outfalls, three of which were partially funded by Dane County.

 

While these efforts all help improve the quality of the lakes and beaches, Dane County residents and communities would benefit from a more coordinated and aggressive approach to insure safer beaches.

 
 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Dane County Board of Supervisors directs Public Health of Madison Dane County to continue working with the Dane County Land and Water Resource Department, the City of Madison Engineering Division and Parks Department, the Dane County Lakes and Watersheds Commission, the University of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to examine the feasibility of implementing recommendations at each of the impaired beaches from the Yahara CLEAN final report, and prepare a Safer Beach Plan for each impaired beach to address water quality and minimize the number of impaired days. Four beach plans are due by July 1, 2010, and the remaining five beach plans are due by July 1, 2011. The beaches should be prioritized by number of people using them and ease of clean up.

 
 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Safer Beach Plans should consider the following practices for improving water quality: installing catchment devices at storm sewer outfalls near beaches, controlling parking lot runoff in areas with adequate space for bioretention systems, controlling geese and other natural sources of nutrients and pathogens, educating people about proper diaper usage and disposal and the problems associated with animal feeding, and other measures needed to make the beach safer more enjoyable for swimming. Additionally, the plans will include estimated costs and potential methods to pay for further analysis and possible cleanup costs for the nine impaired beaches.

  
 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Safer Beach plans should be implemented as soon as possible pending available resources and funding.