Beach Water Tests Clean

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 July 2008, 15:00 CDT By Anna Ferguson, The Brunswick News, Ga. Jul. 23--By 8 a.m. Tuesday, Paulette Hayes was out, patrolling the beaches of St. Simons Island. Standing a few feet deep in the lapping waves, Hayes dropped a vial into the water and collected a splash. Once a week, Hayes and a team from the Coastal Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources can be found out in the waves, gathering water samples to test for possible bacteria contamination. And the news the samplers have provided so far this June and July has been surprisingly, good. "It's been pretty good all this year," said Hayes, a marine technician with the Coastal Resources Division. The Coastal Resources Division tests St. Simons, Jekyll and Tybee island beaches weekly, looking for traces of enterococcus bacteria and... [read full story]