MDEQ Issues Water Contact Advisory For One Location

Two Advisories in Hancock County Still in Effect
(JACKSON, Miss.) — The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), through its Beach Monitoring Program, issued a water contact advisory today for one sampling station in Harrison County.  This segment of beach is not closed; however, there may be an increased risk of illness associated with swimming in that area.

MDEQ is working closely with local officials to advise residents that the water in the following location may have high bacteria levels:

●Station 11A – Edgewater Beach – from Debuys Road east to Edgewater Avenue (http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/msbeach/station.cgi?Stanum=11A).

The following locations are still under advisories:

●Station 1 – Lakeshore — from the Silver Slipper east to the jetty west of Poinset Avenue.

● Station 3 – Waveland Beach — from Oak Boulevard east to Favre Street.

When water samples show that levels are safe for human contact, the advisories will be lifted.  The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, which performs water sampling of the Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches for MDEQ, notifies the agency when an area has returned to acceptable levels.

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.

More information on the Mississippi Beach Monitoring Program:
http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/msbeach/index.cgi.

To receive beach advisories directly, send an email to rwilbur@deq.state.ms.us for inclusion in a public group email list, text “beach” to 601-863-8082,

or follow MDEQ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/MDEQ.

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