State
public health director announces Web pages allowing the public to
check beach water quality before swimming
Site
lists beach closings and water test results
Send a link to a friend
[June 07, 2008]
SPRINGFIELD -- To help keep you
safe and healthy this summer, Dr. Damon T. Arnold, state public
health director, announced that the public can now check the water
quality at beaches across the state with just the click of a button.
The Illinois Department of Public Health now provides information
online about public and private beaches, including water testing
results, advisories or beach closures, and beach monitoring history.
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"Illinois beaches are a great resource, and we want to make sure
people remain safe when enjoying them. The Beach Monitoring Web site
provides information daily about water quality and beach advisories
or closures so you know if it's safe to swim that day," said Arnold.
The site includes beach site details such as the location,
whether it's public or private, who owns the beach, and who monitors
it. The site also includes water quality test results, when a beach
was closed, for how many days and why.
The Department of Public Health licenses all swim beaches in
Illinois under the Swimming Facility Act except for those on Lake
Michigan that are operated by a municipality.
Municipalities operating beaches on Lake Michigan perform water
testing and public notification in compliance with the federal
Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 and
are funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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This year the Illinois Department of Public Health applied for
federal beach program funding to be used to help support water
quality monitoring on Lake Michigan. The department is issuing
$164,000 in grants to jurisdictions along Lake Michigan to perform
water quality testing and notify the public when bacteria levels are
unhealthy:
-
Chicago Park
District, $80,000
-
City of Evanston,
$8,800
-
Lake County Health
Department, $67,360
-
Glencoe Park
District, $2,100
-
City of Kenilworth,
$1,650
-
Wilmette Park District, $4,000
A direct link to the Illinois Department of Public Health Beach
Monitoring site is
http://app.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/ilbeaches/public/.
[Text from
Illinois
Department of Public Health
file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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