Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
AUSTIN -- Water quality at Texas beaches improved in 2007 based on samples collected during peak vacation season, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said Monday.
AP
Even with heavier rains, fewer beach advisories were required in 2007 than in 2006, according to the Beach Watch program in the Texas General Land Office.
Advisories were issued 5 percent of the time at Texas beaches during peak swim season last year. An advisory is issued when water quality standards aren’t met at a particular beach. Signs at the beach display the advisory, and the information is available online.
Patterson’s office collected weekly water samples from 167 sites along the coast from May through September of last year. The samples were tested for the presence of Enterococcus bacteria, an indicator organism for fecal contamination, usually caused by storm water runoff.
Fifty monitored beaches in Aransas, Brazoria, Cameron, Galveston, Jefferson, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces and San Patricio counties had at least one advisory issued during the 2007 swimming season.
Of the 236 water advisories, 83 percent lasted for two days or less.
Water quality is monitored for the land office by local contractors, such as local governmental agencies, universities or commercial laboratories.
Environment Texas, which is to release an annual report on Texas beaches from the Natural Resources Defense Council on Tuesday, said in response to Patterson’s findings that the 236 beach advisories in 2007 are a cause for concern.
“Some families can’t enjoy a day at the beach because the water is polluted and kids are getting sick,” said Brittany Ballard, Environment Texas’ citizen outreach director. “Texas beachgoers shouldn’t be swimming in human and animal waste.”
Aging and poorly designed sewage and storm water systems and sprawl development hold much of the blame for beachwater pollution, Ballard said.
