Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Beach Closings

I will be away for an extended period of time on a medical issue (no, not psychiatric!), but my last post ( I think) before this will be on beach closings.
It took me over 20 years to develop the current preemptive bathing closure policy and its primary purpose to protect everyone from getting sick.
In 1987, when we started realizing the issues of rain and runoff from storms, we were closing after we finished testing the the water, which was 24 hours after the problem existed, mid -1987 we began closing when it seemed that the results would indicate a problem, but we were not so clear in to the reasons why.
People went into the water any way.
Then we started getting supportive calls back to the HD, that we should have listen to you, my son or daughter got an ear infection, or was throwing up or got a strange rash or I didn't feel so well...
People listen after that for awhile.
Well, most times after one of these heavy rains, the weather is not good for going out to the beach, last weekend was an exception, Sunday after that almost 2 inch rainfall, it was absolutely beautiful and bathing was prohibited from Saturday until 1:00 Pm Sunday afternoon and I heard that people did not treat the lifeguards well when they tried to warn people about the water.
Please, this is only cause we don't want you to get sick!
We want a trip to the beach to be an enjoyable experience, not one that sends you to the doctor!
We actually post advisories when there are jelly fish or swimmer itch occurs, but close when we think things could get serious, so the idea is to listen.
In this respect we don't care about NRDC ratings, we only care about your health!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Take care of yourself, Joey K.

My thoughts and prayers are with you...