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Category Archives: Beaches

State Swimming Beaches Closed

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From An Edited Press Release

Three state park swimming beaches have been temporarily closed for water quality issues, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The state park beaches at Harry S Truman located in Warsaw, Lake of the Ozarks located in Osage Beach and Mark Twain located in Florida are closed following results of water samples takenMondaythat indicated bacteria levels higher than those recommended for waters used for swimming.

Last week, Mark Twain located in Florida, Lake Wappapello located in Williamsville, and Thousand Hills located in Kirksville were closed due to flooding. The beaches remain closed due to flooding and Mark Twain remains closed due flooding and high bacteria levels.

The campground beach at Harry S Truman State Park remains open. Visitors to Harry S Truman State Park may stop by the office or fee booth to obtain a pass free of charge to swim at the campground beach. Once tests from the three state park beaches indicate the bacteria levels are within the standard suitable for swimming, the beaches will reopen.

The department collects water samples from all designated beaches in the state park system weekly during the recreational season to determine suitability for swimming. Beaches will be closed for high bacteria when a single E. coli sample exceeds 235 cfu/100ml or when the geometric mean a 30-day rolling average exceeds 126 cfu/100 ml. The sample test results indicate a snap shot of the water quality taken at the beaches at a specific time; however, a single sample does not provide an overall sense of the water quality in the lake where the beach is located.

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State Swimming Beaches Closed

3 Mo. state park beaches temporarily closed

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Three state park swimming beaches have been temporarily closed for water quality issues, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The state park beaches at Harry S Truman located in Warsaw, Lake of the Ozarks located in Osage Beach and Mark Twain located in Florida are closed following results of water samples taken Monday that indicated bacteria levels higher than those recommended for waters used for swimming.

Last week, Mark Twain located in Florida, Lake Wappapello located in Williamsville, and Thousand Hills located in Kirksville were closed due to flooding. The beaches remain closed due to flooding and Mark Twain remains closed due flooding and high bacteria levels.

The campground beach at Harry S Truman State Park remains open. Visitors to Harry S Truman State Park may stop by the office or fee booth to obtain a pass free of charge to swim at the campground beach. Once tests from the three state park beaches indicate the bacteria levels are within the standard suitable for swimming, the beaches will reopen.

The department collects water samples from all designated beaches in the state park system weekly during the recreational season to determine suitability for swimming. Beaches will be closed for high bacteria when a single E. coli sample exceeds 235 cfu/100ml or when the geometric mean a 30-day rolling average exceeds 126 cfu/100 ml. The sample test results indicate a snap shot of the water quality taken at the beaches at a specific time; however, a single sample does not provide an overall sense of the water quality in the lake where the beach is located.

The department will post the information about the beach status on the website at dnr.mo.gov as well as mostateparks.com.

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3 Mo. state park beaches temporarily closed

3 State Park Beaches Temporarily Closed For Water Quality Issues

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By Joe Rios

CREATED Jun. 5, 2013

Information from news release . . .

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Three state park swimming beaches have been temporarily closed for water quality issues, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The state park beaches at Harry S Truman located in Warsaw, Lake of the Ozarks located in Osage Beach and Mark Twain located in Florida are closed following results of water samples taken Monday that indicated bacteria levels higher than those recommended for waters used for swimming.

Last week, Mark Twain located in Florida, Lake Wappapello located in Williamsville, and Thousand Hills located in Kirksville were closed due to flooding. The beaches remain closed due to flooding and Mark Twain remains closed due flooding and high bacteria levels.

The campground beach at Harry S Truman State Park remains open. Visitors to Harry S Truman State Park may stop by the office or fee booth to obtain a pass free of charge to swim at the campground beach. Once tests from the three state park beaches indicate the bacteria levels are within the standard suitable for swimming, the beaches will reopen.

The department collects water samples from all designated beaches in the state park system weekly during the recreational season to determine suitability for swimming. Beaches will be closed for high bacteria when a single E. coli sample exceeds 235 cfu/100ml or when the geometric mean a 30-day rolling average exceeds 126 cfu/100 ml. The sample test results indicate a snap shot of the water quality taken at the beaches at a specific time; however, a single sample does not provide an overall sense of the water quality in the lake where the beach is located.

The department will post the information about the beach status on the website at dnr.mo.gov as well as mostateparks.com. Visitors to Missouri State Parks are able to sign up to receive free electronic notices about the status of state park beaches while visiting the departments beach status website.

Missouri's state parks and historic sites offer something to suit everyone's taste - outdoor adventure, great scenery and a bit of history. With Missouri's 87 state parks and historic sites, the possibilities are boundless. For more information about Missouri state parks and historic sites and swimming beaches, visit mostateparks.com.

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3 State Park Beaches Temporarily Closed For Water Quality Issues

Revealing The Hidden Paths To Malibu’s Secretly Public Beaches

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In California, no one really owns the beach, not even the owners of huge, multi-million dollar homes that hover menacingly atop the sand. State law enables anyone to sit down or pass freely along the area of beach below the "mean high tide line" (the strip of sand thats usually wet). But in towns like Malibu--coastal enclaves of extreme wealth--homeowners often treat the beach like its their personal front yard and keep public passersby from "trespassing" by locking gates, erecting false private property signs, or even siccing security guards on beach-goers.

A new app that just surpassed its $30,000 Kickstarter fundraising goal hopes to "open up the legendary 27 miles of Malibu beaches once and for all" by providing detailed tips on how to access Malibus secret public beaches that have long been treated as private.

"Theres no such thing as an all-private beach in California," says the environmental activist and beach enthusiast Jenny Price, who collaborated with developer team Escape Apps to make the app. "Theres 20 miles of these really gorgeous public beaches that are lined with private development and every single one of those beaches theres an awful lot of sand that you, I, we can all use and hang out on."

Called Our Malibu Beaches, the app will give users ways to identify which "No Parking" signs came from the city, and which came from Home Depot. It will reveal obscured entries to different beaches, fake driveways, and faux construction cones. "It even walks you down each beach--house-by-house--to show you where on each beach you can hang all day on the dry sand," explains the Kickstarter page.

The app could potentially help combat "one of the most egregious examples of privatization of public space in Los Angeles," as Price told the LA Times. The app will be free to download for the iPhone, and an Android version is in the works.

Zak Stone is a staff writer at Co.Exist and a co-founder of Tomorrow Magazine. Continued

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Revealing The Hidden Paths To Malibu’s Secretly Public Beaches

Middletown beaches closed to bathers

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BY KEITH HEUMILLER

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN The townships two public beaches will be off-limits to swimmers until further notice, as the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) scans for debris that could potentially lie offshore as a result of superstorm Sandy.

While bathing at Leonardo could resume if the DEP verifies that there are no hazards in the water, the swimming prohibition at Ideal Beach will likely continue throughout the summer, according to Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante.

Ideal Beach is going to be undergoing beach replenishment this summer, said Mercantante, referring to an Army Corps of Engineers project that will pump new sand onto beaches from Keansburg to Pews Creek.

We havent been given a specific timeframe, and right now were not sure if they are going to start on the Keansburg end or the Middletown end. But its going to be a fairly lengthy project, so it would be very difficult to hire or schedule lifeguards.

Without lifeguards, who usually patrol the two beaches on weekends throughout the summer, Ideal and Leonardo beaches will only be open to sunbathers, volleyball players and other recreation seekers. Swimmers will unfortunately have to wait, according to Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger.

I know the DEP has been very aggressive in addressing these kinds of issues, Scharfenberger said during a May 29 interview. We have been in constant contact with them. They have a lot of efforts that are ongoing up and down the coast people on boats out there picking up just a massive volume of material.

Earlier this year, the DEP contracted multiple companies to scan the Raritan and Sandy Hook bays and other tidal waterways throughout the state for Sandy-related debris, using sonar to locate any potentially dangerous material and removing it from the path of boats and bathers.

Shortly after the storm, Mercantante said residents identified debris in waterways such as Comptons Creek and Ware Creek. Fishermen at the Belford Seafood Cooperative reported seeing dumpsters in the water, which were removed by ferry companies shortly thereafter.

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Middletown beaches closed to bathers

Clean our beaches, spruce up city

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With thousands thronging the citys beaches every day, the sands are anything but clean.

From discarded tyres to clothes and footwear, there is no telling what you may step on the litter is staggering in its variety and quantity.

To mark World Environment Day, which falls on Wednesday, The Hindu in association with Chennai Trekking Club, will organise a clean-up drive on the beaches, stretching from Marina to Injambakkam, on June 16.

The initiative, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., is expected to bring in a sea of volunteers. Over 40 corporates have signed up for the drive and more are expected to join. The drive is aimed at sensitising residents on the need to keep the citys beaches clean.

At present, Marina and Elliots accumulate 12 to 14 tonnes of garbage every weekday and 20-22 tonnes on weekends. On Marina alone, around 100 conservancy employees work in three shifts to clear garbage.

From schoolchildren to corporate honchos, anyone can join the initiative. Volunteers will be given garbage bags and gloves and each team will be assigned a 1-km stretch. Buses have been arranged from 10 points across the city to pick up and drop volunteers. The event will be flagged off by Chennai Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.

Registration is open on http://www.thehindu.comchennaicoastalcleanup from Thursday; volunteers can also call 28575807 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

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Clean our beaches, spruce up city

Malibu beaches app draws in donors, criticism

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Last week, the designers of an iPhone app that would identify public access points to Malibu beaches successfully reached a fundraising goal of $30,000 to make it free to download.

The Our Malibu Beaches app is being hailed as a victory for public access by proponents, while some residents are concerned that increased visitors from the app could bring sanitation and law enforcement issues at public access points that currently lack restrooms, trash receptacles and regular patrols.

The app was inspired by environmental writer and longtime public access advocate Jenny Price, whose three-part series for LA Observed in 2007 shone a critical light on Malibus many well-kept secret access points and beaches.

The beaches arent private, said Price. There are a lot of public easements on dry sand, and we are just using the app to show beachgoers where they can go legally and avoid trespassing.

Many of the beaches in the more exclusive areas of Malibu, like Carbon Beach and Broad Beach, have long been inaccessible to outsiders, with vertical pathways from Pacific Coast Highway either owned by the county or granted easements by state agencies, but never being developed. The default result is that most people visiting Malibu believe that the 17 marked and open paths to the beach are the only legitimate access ways.

I know people in Malibu who live close to the beach, Price said. But they have to get in their car to drive two miles to find a way to the beach.

The problem is that the citys own coastal plan, written by the California Coastal Commission, calls for an access path every 1,000 feet, which would mean about 105 open pathways. The cost of such development can be prohibitively expensive.

It is more that issue than any desire to roll up the drawbridge and keep everybody out that prevents further access development, City Councilman John Sibert said.

Jefferson [Wagner, former city councilman] and I got the city moving to open access to Dan Blocker Beach, Sibert said. We get complaints all the time about no beach access, but the easements are there.

City Manager Jim Thorsen said that there are currently 52 recorded easements on the books, with about half available to use, and the rest are owned by other state agencies and in need of being developed.

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Malibu beaches app draws in donors, criticism

Allinclusive.co Reports Travelers’ Choice 2013 Best Beaches in Costa Rica

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Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) June 04, 2013

Each year TripAdvisor announces the results of the Travelers Choice Awards that are selected by millions of travelers worldwide. This year Costa Rica achieved the top spot in the Best Beaches in Central America category. Costa Rica not only topped the list but eight of Costa Ricas beautiful beaches were included in this category, four from the province of Guanacaste.

TripAdvisor's Travelers Choice awards are based on millions of valuable reviews and opinions covering more than 650,000 hotels and collected in a single year from travelers around the world.

Guanacaste is located in the North West region and is home to several attractive beaches lining Costa Ricas Pacific Coast. The most beautiful Costa Rican beaches are arguably concentrated in the Guanacaste Province. Playa Samara, Playa Avellanes, Playa Conchal and Playa Hermosa were four of the beaches that received the top honor from TripAdvisor.

According to a report from The Costa Rica News, "The Guanacaste province receives thousands of tourists every year looking for its warm waters. Its beaches range from sites with white sand and a sea with almost no waves as well as popular sites for surfing. Over the years Guanacaste has developed rapidly into a popular tourist destination. This has spurred the growth of several luxury hotels like the Riu Palace Costa Rica, which opened its doors to the public less than one year ago.

Guanacaste beaches provide an ideal location for travelers with more than 125 miles of sandy shores. The All Inclusive Riu Guanacaste is located just along the Playa Matapalo. Visitors often enjoy various beach activities such as swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, wind surfing, diving as well as sunbathing. Costa Rica is a magnificent country and its tourism industry is an international example of good practices, said Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels and Resorts.

Based on insights from millions of travelers from around the world, the TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice awards help identify the most highly rated and loved vacation spots said Barbara Messing, Chief Marketing Officer for TripAdvisor.

To experience the beautiful beaches and all inclusive vacation resorts in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and other tropical destinations, visit http://www.allinclusive.co/.

About Allinclusive.co: Allinclusive.co was created by a group of veteran travel agents and wholesale tour operators with more than 30 years of vacation servicing experience. Allinclusive.co combines the individualized vacation attention of a local travel agent with the low resort prices those local agents cant offer, providing a one-stop, all-inclusive vacation experience where there are never any hidden fees.

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Allinclusive.co Reports Travelers’ Choice 2013 Best Beaches in Costa Rica

Hingham may extend smoking ban to beaches, cemeteries

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Four years after prohibiting smoking at town parks and playgrounds, Hingham officials are considering whether to expand the outdoor smoking ban to town-owned beaches, docks and cemeteries.

The expanded ban is one of several changes being floated by Hinghams board of health as it looks to update the towns smoking regulations, which were last revised in 2009. Another change would update the regulations to include electronic and herbal cigarettes.

Kirk Shilts, the boards chairman, said board members considered including beaches and other public spaces in the towns outdoor smoking ban in 2009 but eventually decided to limit the ban to town parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities.

No one has come back and said, This is overreach and you need to stop, Shilts said. If anything, weve had people say, Can you add the beaches? Can you add the Taste of Hingham?

Hingham was among several cities and towns that adopted outdoor smoking bans in the years after the states workplace smoking law was passed in 2004, prohibiting tobacco use in nearly all restaurants, shops and offices in Massachusetts, according to Cheryl Sbarra, director of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards Tobacco Control Program. Sbarra said most of the outdoor smoking bans targeted beaches, playgrounds and other places frequented by children.

The thought of someone smoking at a kids baseball game was just offensive to people, she said.

Abington, Braintree, Kingston and Marshfield have all adopted some kind of outdoor smoking ban, according to a list compiled by the Massachusetts Municipal Association. The list includes only two communities with a ban on smoking in cemeteries: Great Barrington and Malden.

Unlike indoor smoking bans, which are aimed at protecting non-smokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke, outdoor smoking rules are about changing perceptions, especially among young people, Shilts said. Its more about the attitude toward smoking and how that perception and that activity is perceived by children, he said. We dont want that perception to be fostered, that this is something that is cool that adults do and that a child would want to emulate.

Some public health advocates, however, say that outdoor bans go too far and undermine ongoing efforts to stop workplace smoking in parts of the country where it is still legal. Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at Boston Universitys School of Public Health, said he doesnt buy the argument that towns should adopt outdoor bans just to keep smoking out of view from children.

It would be like prohibiting eating fast food in public or something like that. It makes no sense, he said. We generally recognize that people are free to do what they want as long as its not directly harming other people.

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Hingham may extend smoking ban to beaches, cemeteries

Township beaches battered by recent storms, but open

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Municipal beaches along the Lake Erie shoreline are popular alternatives to the better-known beaches at Presque Isle.

The beaches aren't meticulously maintained, because of budget constraints, and beach conditions largely depend on water and wind. Storms, like the severe thunderstorms that buffeted the Lake Erie shoreline Tuesday, deposit driftwood and algae and eat away at beach sand.

"We really don't have the resources to clean that up. Similarly, we don't do sand replenishment because we don't have the budget for that," said Harborcreek Township Supervisor Tim May, who oversees Shades Beach and other township-owned parks.

But all of the beaches are open and expected to attract steady streams of visitors.

"What people like about these beaches is that they don't get so crowded. The sand here maybe is not as pure as at Presque Isle, but we love it," North East Township Supervisor Gus Neff said.

North East Township owns and maintains Freeport Beach in partnership with North East Borough. It also owns and maintains North East Township Community Conservation Park, including a long stretch of beach, near the New York State line.

See Monday's Erie Times-News and GoErie.com for more coverage.

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Township beaches battered by recent storms, but open


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