Officials defending upkeep of Wisconsin beaches

Wisconsin officials are defending the safety and cleanliness of its beaches after an unflattering national ranking.

According to the National Resources Defense Council, Wisconsin Ranks 25th out of 30 states for monitoring things including bacteria and other contamination. That may sound bad, but Wisconsin officials say they turn up more problems, as we have one of the most aggressive beach monitoring systems of any state.

Donalea Dinsmore administers federal grant money for Wisconsin beach monitoring for the state Department of Natural Resources: “We monitor 114 beaches. Many (up to) five times a week. So when you gather lots of data, you have lots of possibilities of finding an issue. If you are only monitoring once a week, as some states do, you have less risk of finding a problem.”

Dinsmore says Wisconsin has been particularly aggressive in preventing parking lot runoff, providing plenty of safe trash cans, and re-routing stormwater flows.

Beach-goers can find out the safety of their favorite spot by going to wibeaches.us; and can download a beach safety app at glin.net/beachcast/.