EPA Plans Water Testing Funding Cut

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent plan to eliminate federal funds for water contamination testing is a "double whammy to beachgoers," Heal the Bay Water Quality Director Kristen James told the Los Angeles Times last week.

In its recent budget request, the EPA proposed cutting $10 million in annual grants to state and local agencies to test for water contamination, according to the Times. Of the $10 million, California receives $500,000 each year to supplement its beach monitoring programs along the coast.

The cuts fall under the "$50 million in savings (that comes from) eliminating several EPA programs that have either completed their goals or can be implemented through other federal or state efforts," according to a news release from the EPA about the budget proposal.

The agency told the Times that "states and local governments now have the technical expertise and procedures to continue beach monitoring without federal support."

James disagreed.

"The EPA is on multiple levels telling (beachgoers) they are swimming at their own risk every time they go to the beach," she told the Times.

On its website, Heal the Bay decried the decision.

"This announcement comes on the heels of the EPA's December announcement that it was weakening its criteria for judging the acceptable risk of illness," the organization wrote in a news release. "Under the proposal, it would be OK if 1 in 28 swimmers got sick from swimming at a beach."

It also encouraged the public to contact the EPA to express displeasure over the budget cuts and new proposal.

According to the Times article, "swimming in polluted water exposes people to pathogens that can cause gastrointestinal illness, nausea, vomiting, skin rashes and ear, eye and staph infections."