FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2010
Contact: Robbie Wilbur
601/961-5277
MDEQ ISSUES BACTERIA-RELATED BEACH ADVISORY FOR ONE LOCATION IN HANCOCK COUNTY
ADVISORY NOT RELATED TO GULF OIL SPILL
(JACKSON, Miss.) -- The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), through its Beach Monitoring Program, is working closely with local officials to advise residents that the following location may have a high bacteria level:
● Station 4 in Hancock County – near St. Charles Street in Bay St. Louis.
This is advisory is not connected to any oil spill activity. MDEQ strongly advises against swimming and other water contact in these waters until water samples show a consistent safe level for human contact. When water samples show that levels are safe for human contact, the advisory will be lifted. Additionally, swimmers are reminded that the Beach Task Force has a standing recommendation that swimming not occur during or within 24 hours of a significant rainfall event.
The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, which performs water sampling of the Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches for MDEQ, will notify the agency when the area has returned to acceptable levels. For more information on the Mississippi Beach Monitoring Program: http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/msbeach/index.cgi.
Oil spill-related beach advisories remain in effect for beach monitoring sites 1, 2 and 3 in Hancock County, sites 5, 6, 7, 7A, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 1, 11A, 12, 12A, 13, and a portion of 12B in Harrison County, and a Jackson County advisory also remains in effect and includes the area from Main Street in the Belle Fountain area west to Seashore Avenue for sites 17 and 15A.
Under these advisories, the beaches are open to use; however, MDEQ and the Beach Monitoring Task Force recommend that people avoid contact with oil-related materials such as tar balls and stay out of the water if these materials are visible.
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