Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
With years of improvements and regular testing, Myrtle Beach has made it a top priority to ensure excellent water quality. Myrtle Beach Public Information Officer, Mark Kruea, explains just how cautiously the city works to maintain their pristine ocean water.
“Our ocean water quality is extremely important here at Myrtle Beach and that’s why we test it twice a week, the city tests it once and then the state tests it once too, to make sure it’s safe for swimming, safe for our families, for our neighbors, and certainly for our visitors alike.”
And when a rare swimming advisory is put in place, it’s important to understand what exactly that means for your day at the beach.
“Now if one of those tests at one spot brings back an elevated reading, we would issue a swimming advisory at that particular location. It’s usually a small part of the beach, about 400 feet, and the swimming advisory doesn’t mean that the beach is closed. In fact, you can still wade, you can still collect shells along the beach. It is only a recommendation that you not put your head under the water at that one location where the advisory is in effect.”
But don’t worry because as soon as the water has been tested again and is back up to standard, Officer Kruea guarantees that you’ll be back to enjoying all the ocean activities Myrtle Beach has to offer.
“We will do a retest which typically takes about 24 hours and once we have normal reading again, the swimming advisory is lifted so we wanted you to be aware of the process we go through to make sure that our ocean water quality is excellent here in Myrtle Beach and we want you to be comfortable when you come to the beach here and enjoy all Myrtle Beach has to offer.”
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