A swimming advisory sign warns visitors to Oak Island of high bacteria levels near the Oak Island Pier in 2010.

Southeastern North Carolina's beaches had just four water quality warnings during the 2012 tourist season, the area's lowest total in four summers, according to records from the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, beaches in Brunswick County and New Hanover County each had one water quality alert and one advisory. Pender County beaches had no reported issues.

That total is the lowest since 2008, when area beaches notched three advisories in the same time period. Officials with the state's water quality testing program said the low numbers are a positive though the success or failure of a particular season is less about the quantity of issued warnings than protecting swimmers and beachgoers.

We don't really look at it that way, said J.D. Potts, the program's director. Our job is to protect public health, and we do whatever necessary to notify the public whenever we have conditions that don't meet the standards.

State workers routinely visit 240 coastal and estuarine sites up and down the shoreline, testing water samples for enterococci, a bacteria that indicates fecal contamination. Of those, 114 high-traffic sites, designated as tier 1, are tested more frequently; 45 are in the Cape Fear region, including Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach.

If a sample tests positive for the bacteria, officials submit a second sample for confirmation and issue a water quality alert. If the second sample returns the same result, the alert is upgraded to an advisory.

That means we've posted a sign at the location and issued a press release, both advising people not to swim, Potts said. But they still can. We don't have the authority to close beaches, but county and state health directors can do that.

Swimmers exposed to fecal contamination are at risk for staph infections, rashes and diarrhea, among other ailments. Still, beach closings are relatively rare, particularly in ocean-side locations, where conditions are much more variable, Potts said.

There are 24 hours between the time you collect the sample and the time it takes to have the analysis completed in the lab, he said. During that 24-hour time, you've had two high tides and two low tides. A lot of water has come and gone ... so we're posting swimming advisories on the conditions of the water 24 hours earlier.

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Coastal water woes wash away