As the summer comes into full swing, a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council reminds Americans that not all beaches are created equal.
After taking water samples from thousands of coastal and lake beaches, tests showed that one in ten beaches failed to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's safety standards, CBS News reported. The council concluded that the dangerous levels of bacteria are caused by storm-water runoffs and the overflowing of sewages in urban areas.
"There can be hidden dangers lurking in many of our waterways in the form of bacteria and viruses that can cause a great inventory of illnesses like dysentery, hepatitis, stomach flu, infections and rashes," Steve Fleischli, water program director of the NRDC, which conducted the report, told CBS News.
Nearly 3,500 water samples were taken from beaches along the East and West Coast and the Great Lakes. Out of all the samples, the Great Lakes' beaches contained the highest bacteria levels. Other heavily polluted beaches were found in New York, New Jersey and Mississippi as well as the Gulf Coast and New England.
The results were based on new EPA safety standards the NRDC used for the first time in 2013, according to USA Today.
"Results in this year show uptick in failure rate at 10% nationwide, but this reflects a newer, more health-protected (standard of safety test)," Jon Devine, NRDC senior attorney, told USA Today. "If we were to compare to the old defunct standard, it would have been about 7% of the samples; which tells us we're stagnating in terms of progress of water protection."
Nearly 3.5 million people contract illnesses by swimming in sewage-contaminated water, according to the EPA. Diseases include skin rashes, pinkeye, stomach flu, meningitis and respiratory infections- all of which can affect children more because they are more likely to swallow beach water, Fleischli told USA Today.
So where can beach lovers go to avoid swimming with bacteria?
According to the report, the cleanest beaches in the nation can be found in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland, with Delaware beaches being the nation's cleanest.
