Image by David Mark from Pixabay

This is the third post on the Louisiana, Mississippi and now the Alabama beaches. There was a lot of the same information on this last one so I will not repeat it. The main thing is that Alabama is safer than Mississippi and they have more comparable beaches than Louisiana.

When it comes to fecal coliform bacteria, Alabama beaches are far safer than Mississippi’s, according to a new report from the Environment America Research and Policy Center. Of 10 Alabama beaches tested in 2020, none showed potentially unsafe levels of contamination on more than half the test days; in Mississippi, seven of 10 beaches did so. The national study used a federal database of water sampling data from almost 330 beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico. About one in 10 beaches surveyed showed concerning levels of fecal bacteria on at least a quarter of the days they were tested. Fecal bacteria can cause stomach problems, lung illnesses, ear and eye infections and skin rash. Common causes for spikes in waterborne bacteria include runoff from streets and other paved surfaces, sewerage overflows, failed septic systems, pet waste and manure and fertilizer from farms.

nola.com

Alabama has two counties involved and there is a bit of a difference between them. There are a lot of different beaches between the two.

Wiley Blankenship, president and CEO of the Coastal Alabama Partnership, said the state’s two Gulf of Mexico counties face different challenges in curbing sewage pollution. Mobile County’s infrastructure is old and needs an overhaul, whereas east of Mobile Bay, Baldwin County’s rapidly growing population is putting stress on its newer pipes and treatment plants. “The only way to fix it is investment – on both sides of the bay,” said Blankenship, whose group promotes tourism among other initiatives. “They’re always working to upgrade.”

So this covers the area in Louisiana to the Florida/Alabama border. Like I said,this is a short one as I did not duplicate what the other post had.

Alabama safer than Mississippi
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