Nearly two-thirds of Louisiana beaches tested positive for harmful levels of fecal bacteria last year, according to a new report on potential health risks at America’s coastal recreation areas.
The testing from the Environment America Research and Policy Center focused on 23 beaches in Louisiana out of nearly 3,200 tested nationwide in 2024. Of the 10 Louisiana beaches where tests found the water was “potentially unsafe” most often, eight sites were in Cameron Parish.
Environment America compared its test samples with the Environmental Protection Agency’s highest water quality metric, which estimates that no more than 32 out of every 1,000 swimmers get sick from the amount of harmful bacteria present. All Louisiana beaches tested had at least one day of sampling that exceeded this threshold.
“Even as Louisianans are back to enjoying the fresh sea breeze and splash of waves at the beach, pollution is still plaguing too many of the places where we swim,” said John Rumpler, one of the report’s authors and the clean water director for the Environment America Research and Policy Center, in a press release.
Bacterial water pollution can come from a variety of sources, such as sewage overflows from old and aging sewer systems, and runoff from farms with livestock.
The combination of increased development and fewer wetlands can also propagate the spread of harmful bacteria throughout waterways. Wetlands act as filters for bacterial pollution, and an overabundance of parking lots, houses and roads funnel runoff into rivers and lakes instead of allowing it to be absorbed into the ground.
The worst testing results in Louisiana were at Rutherford Beach, where the Mermentau River empties into the Gulf of Mexico in Cameron Parish. Its water was found to be potentially unsafe on 19 of the 28 days tested last year. Fecal bacteria frequency was also high at Martin Beach in Cameron Parish and at five sections of Holly Beach.
North Beach, on the upper shore of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, saw unsafe test results on 19 of the 30 days sampled.
Poor water quality was reported at Fontainebleau State Park in St. Tammany Parish on 12 of the 29 days tested, placing it 10th among state beaches with the worst test results.
The Environment America Research and Policy Center is calling for a deeper commitment to improving water infrastructure as well as protecting wetlands, reworking the way farms handle livestock manure and expanding testing for harmful bacteria at beaches.
“Now is the time to fix our water infrastructure and stop the flow of pathogens to our beaches,” Rumpler said.
The Gulf Coast had the highest percentage of potentially unsafe sampling days out of any region in the study despite having only 218 of the 1,930 sampling spots. Testing showed 84% of Gulf Coast beaches had at least one potentially unsafe day, followed by the West Coast (79%), Great Lakes (71%), East Coast (54%) and Alaska and Hawaii (10%).
Nationally, 61% of beaches had at least one day with potentially unsafe bacteria levels.