Environmental advocates estimate 57 million Americans contract a waterborne illness every year. And its likely that many dont notice because the symptoms are similar to the flu or COVID-19.

People usually think they just caught a bug, said Dr. Sara Andrabi, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. But this could have been from water exposure, she said.

Texas has a dirty water problem, and there are three main contributors, according to the 2021 Safe for Swimming report from Environment Texas Research and Policy Center: buildings and concrete pavement of natural areas, leaking city sewer systems and large livestock farms.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Galveston's Seawall is about to be packed with Model T replicas, a throwback to the 1900s

Fifty-five of the states 61 beaches were found to be dangerous for swimming at least once during the states regular testing, which usually occurs on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule.

For the first time, the report broke down water quality data by county and found that beaches in Harris County were unsafe on more than half of the days tested.

So about 90 percent of beaches were unsafe for swimming at least once in 2020, said Anna Sherman, clean water associate for Environment Texas. It speaks to the fact that we really are continuing to see failing infrastructure.

Sewage pipes break, leading to sewage leaking into waterways that eventually feed into the Gulf, making them unsafe for swimming, Sherman said. The rise of commercial farms 97 percent of hogs are now raised on big farms, she said has created an overflow of animal waste to flow into natural waterways, as well.

The rise of factory farms has resulted in large concentrations of livestock manure that cannot be stored safely and is often over-applied to crops, the report reads. All too often, rainfall washes excess manure from cropland into our waterways where it can put swimmers health at risk.

On HoustonChronicle.com: How to reintroduce your kid to the world post-pandemic

People should be able to use our beaches its not the use that is making them dirty, Sherman said. Its human-caused in the fact that we havent invested in our sewer infrastructure.

Kristina Mena, an environmental microbiologist and dean of the UTHealth School of Public Health in El Paso, conducts human health risk assessment, in which where she analyzes water quality data from different areas along with exposure rates. This helps predict whether that person will get sick from swimming in that body of water.

Recreational waterborne illnesses are very prevalent, Mena said. But its hard to assess just how common they are because most people who swim in beaches are healthy and do not stay sick for long if they come in contact with harmful bacteria.

Waterborne disease symptoms range from bacterial infections to gastrointestinal problems and breathing issues, Andrabi said. Polluted waters can cause diarrhea if a person swallows it, ear infections or swimmers ear if bacteria grows in their ear canal, or something more serious, like vibriosis, a flesh-eating bacterial infection.

When you get infected or ill from a pathogen, it will resolve on its own, or it will be mild with non-specific symptoms so it seems like its not linked to the water, Mena said. Nausea and gastroenteritis often have a lengthy incubation period, so it goes underreported because people dont connect it to the water.

If a person is thinking about going to the beach, they need to understand what is going on in surrounding areas. Has it rained recently? Could there be more polluted water runoff than normal?

The elderly, young children and immunocompromised individuals are most at risk of developing severe complications from a waterborne illness, Mena said. Dehydration can be a major problem for those suffering from longterm diarrhea and nausea, Andrabi added.

Texas Beach Watch, a service operated by the Texas General Land Office and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, gives real time updates on water quality along beaches in Aransas, Brazoria, Cameron, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Matagorda, Nueces and San Patricio counties.

From May through September, water samples are collected weekly. Otherwise, samples are done every two weeks. The GLO works with local governments to issue advisories warning the public not to swim if bacteria levels exceed EPA standards.

On HoustonChronicle.com: How to stay hydrated in the Houston heat

The program samples the water for Enterococcus bacteria, a bacterium found in the gastrointestinal tracts of humans that is present in fecal matter, and biologists base the beachs safety rating off those findings.

Every year, the Safe for Swimming Report gives recommendations for how to solve bacteria-filled waters in Texas. These include increasing funding to fix sewage systems and preventing runoff pollution through natural, green infrastructure, like rain gardens.

Stopping the construction and expansion of large livestock farms in areas that flow toward waterways is another recommendation, as well as protecting wetlands by not building on them.

Sherman said the group will continue to watch how the Biden Administrations new infrastructure plan moves through Congress; the plan would set aside money for new ways to clean our natural waters and keep them clean.

It is breaking news we are talking about investing in infrastructure right now because its something weve failed to do for years, she said. Now is the time to invest in infrastructure to keep beaches clean and make sure the systems in place are working.

julie.garcia@chron.com

Twitter.com/reporterjulie

See original here:

Sick after going to the beach? Experts say it could be poop in the water. - Houston Chronicle