Last week, the government's General Accounting Office released a report confirming some pretty troubling news. In fact, this is probably the last thing you want to hear this time of year while checking the surf reports and planning that trip to coast. The GAO's report--not so succinctly titled, "The BEACH Act of 2000: EPA and States Have Made Progress Implementing the Act, but Further Actions Could Increase Public Health Protection"--basically chided the EPA (intergovernmental admonition!) for not keeping our nation's beaches safe for the public. And we're not talking about fierce rip currents or nasty sunburns, but rather the health and safety of the water itself--water that is in many cases packed with pathogens that'll make swimmers ill.

We've been all over this issue for awhile here at NRDC, even bringing a lawsuit against the EPA last year for their lack of action in protecting the public from dangerous conditions on our beaches. The lawsuit has proven well justified, and David Beckman, director of NRDC's Coastal Water Quality Program reacted to the new report, saying that it "underscores that Americans are not being protected today by modern beach water quality standards."

You can take a look at the report in full here or check out our new summer travel guide piece on beaches.