When it rains all the filth and muck that’s accumlated on land gets washed into the ocean.  If you think about all the crap that you see on the streets in your town, it’s pretty nasty.  Paddling out after a rain puts you at risk of getting sick.  Exactly how and when you get sick depends on how polluted the water is.  The truth of the matter is that most beachgoers don’t really know exactly how dirty the water is.

You can check the water quality of your beach online.  These websites don’t offer up-to-date information and also they typically only test the levels of bacteria in the water, ignoring other harmful things like toxic chemicals and heavy metals that can potentially lead to serious long-term illnesses like cancer.  The more we can learn about the quality of the water near our beaches, the better equipped we can be to control the quality. 

If you care about being able to play in clean water, then it’s important to spread the word and do what you can to support initiatives like the Blue Water Task Force in their efforts to gather more information about water conditions near our beaches.