FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robbie Wilbur
April 16, 2010 601/961-5277
MDEQ ISSUES BEACH ADVISORIES FOR SIX LOCATIONS
(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 locations may have high bacteria levels:
●Station 1 - near Lakeshore Drive, Bay St. Louis;
●Station 7A - near Trautman Avenue, Long Beach;
●Station 8 - near Fournier Avenue, Gulfport;
●Station 9 - near Pratt Avenue, Gulfport;
●Station 10 - U.S. Naval Home/Veterans Hospital near Oak Avenue, Gulfport;
●Station 10A - near Courthouse Road west parking lot, Gulfport.
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 advisories 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 areas have returned to acceptable levels. For more information on the Mississippi Beach Monitoring Program: http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/msbeach/index.cgi.
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