Thank You Thursday 4-17-14

A day at the beach shouldn’t make you sick. It’s a core principle of Heal the Bay and many of our lawmakers deserve our gratitude for reminding others in Washington, D.C. of the importance of water quality testing. We especially want to thank Congressman Henry Waxman for his recent leadership and U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein for their support in the effort to reinstate funding for the BEACH Act grant program at the $9.8 million level. The program, run by the Environmental Protection Agency since its enactment in 2000, helps local governments pay for regular water-quality testing and  has tripled the number of beaches monitored for unsafe bacteria levels, now more than 3,600 locations. These funds are crucial to local communities’ ability to pay for consistent monitoring, a critical element for letting the public know when it’s safe to dive into our coastal waters.