BILOXI — Soft sand, cool water … and high levels of bacteria? Mississippi’s beaches are popular spots for spring break visitors, and they’re a cash cow for local businesses. However, visitors might discover a regular roadblock in their planning: advisories of high levels of bacteria along Gulf Coast beaches.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has already issued a half dozen water contact advisories this year, recommending beach-goers to avoid the water due to potential health concerns.
While many Mississippi beachgoers move further down the beach, others might choose a different place to spend their holiday — a decision which could negatively impact Gulf Coast business owners.
According to Visit Mississippi, the area’s tourism industry generates $17.5 billion in economic impact. A report from the state tourism organization showed that 43 million visitors enjoy the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s amenities each year.
Impacts on Gulf Coast business owners
Across 26 miles of beach, usually only certain areas of the beach are under advisory. Tommy Wittmann, a Gulf Coast native, signed up for advisory notifications on his phone, and when he’s alerted, simply moves a few miles down the beach.
“As far as our beach waters, I’ve been going skimboarding in this water since I was five years old. I’m 67 now, and never had any issues with any water quality, other than it just looks muddy. So, it kind of scares people that they think it’s really dirty, but really, it’s just full of nutrients and all,” said Wittmann, owner and operator of Gulfport Board Sports, a small shop that sells watersport equipment.
According to MDEQ, the Mississippi Sound receives flow from five major river systems that deposit sediment and organic matter, impacting water color and clarity. MDEQ stated these variations in water color are natural and don’t necessarily indicate pollution.
One man-made flow of river water was in 2019, when the Bonnet Carré Spillway was opened for a record 121 days. This prolonged diversion flooded the Mississippi Sound with river water, decreasing its salinity and releasing nutrients and sediment from locations upriver.
In the wake of the opening — as summer temperatures rose — a large bloom of toxic blue-green algae caused MDEQ to close beaches for three months of the holiday season.
Wittmann said, while his business can avoid water-contact advisories, beach closures have an unavoidable impact.
“They didn’t want anybody in the water at all (during the algal bloom). So, that affected our business. We were having to go elsewhere, to go ride, to kite and windsurf and skim or whatever we were doing,” Wittmann said.
Barney Foster has been renting boats and jet skis to beachgoers since the early 1980s. In 2019, he said his business took large losses in revenue.
Barney said, beyond beach closures, regular water contact advisories can lead to confusion among tourists that beaches are closed.
“When we run those stories, it’s like advertising for Gulf Shores. Everyone goes on over to Gulf Shores and Pensacola — they don’t come here. I’ll call my buddies over there and they’re rocking and rolling. We’re sitting here struggling,” Barney said. “… When (tourists) check into a hotel, they get told, ‘Don’t go in the water.’”
Barney said if MDEQ issues water contact advisories in the late spring, he can expect to see a significant loss in revenue. If the advisories continue toward July 4, the effects can be dire for his business.
“I’d wish they’d cut (MDEQ advisories) totally. All it does is kill tourism,” Barney said.
Linda Hornsby, executive director of the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association, said it is difficult to quantify the economic effect of water advisories.
“It’s industry standard that the general traveling public, they have their vacation time planned far in advance, and they’re much more likely to change their destination than they are to reschedule their vacation. So, when any type of water or beach advisory is issued, they’re more likely to change their destination than they are their travel plans,” Hornsby said.
She said the color of Mississippi’s beach water leads to the misconception that it is polluted, and when tourists plan a vacation, perceptions can dominate their decision-making.
“We have pristine beaches thanks to our Sand Beach Authority in Harrison County, but the waters, unless people know better – they’re brown,” Hornsby said. “There’s a misconception that brown water is dirty. It’s not dirty. It simply is protected by our barrier islands, and because of that protection, we have more species of fish in that body of water than any other body of water,” Hornsby said.
Michelle McKay, a bartender at Adventures Pub & Spirits in Biloxi, often confronts this perception of Mississippi beach water.
“I have a lot of out-of-towners that come down, they ask me, ‘Do you get in the water?’ Because they see the brackishness … Baby, I get in the water all the time,” McKay said. “A lot of them do have a little bit of reservation about getting into the water because we don’t look like Florida water — they want that crystal blue water. But it doesn’t bother me. I think the Coast is a beautiful place.”
McKay believes tourists should consider the possible presence of bacteria, just as they should at any other beach.
“That will always be something that has been around since even before I was, you were, my mama, my daddy, everybody. I mean, there’s nothing that you can really do about that, my love. It’s just bacteria that just thrives in hot salt water,” McKay said.
What are these water advisories?
MDEQ tests beach water for pollutants weekly at 21 beach locations across the state’s coastal counties, as required under the federal BEACH Act. The agency tests for various pollutants, but the Enterococcus bacteria is of regular concern and is responsible for most water contact advisories.
“Enterococcus bacteria are found in the digestive tract of mammals and makes its way into waterbodies primarily from stormwater runoff. Heavy rainfall increases runoff, leading to higher bacteria levels in surface waters,” according to MDEQ.
The agency said exposure to elevated levels of Enterococcus bacteria can lead to gastrointestinal illnesses, infections and other health issues, particularly in vulnerable populations, clarifying similar bacteria are found in most water bodies.
If a weekly test of surface waters passes a certain threshold (104 cfu/100mL), then MDEQ tests again. If the next test comes back with a result above that threshold, then MDEQ issues a water advisory at that test station. The advisory is not lifted until two tests come back under that threshold, and some advisories can last weeks.
MDEQ stressed a water contact advisory is not a beach closure. If there is a water contact advisory, the sand portion of the beach is still open for public use. Even under a beach closure, the beach is open for public use, but closures are typically issued when there is a “known source of pollution that poses a risk to public health.”
MDEQ strongly urges beachgoers avoid contact with the water during a water contact advisory, a sentiment echoed by Dr. Brett Kathmann, a wound care specialist at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport.
“You never know if you’re going to be that unlucky person — who is otherwise healthy, runs marathons and gets into the water, steps on a piece of glass and boom — now your foot’s infected,” Kathmann said. “If there’s an advisory out there, I’d take it seriously and try to avoid getting in the water.”
Kathmann said, while Enterococcus and E-coli bacterial infections occur more often, a bacterium of great concern to Memorial Health is Vibrio vulnificus, sometimes called a “flesh-eating” bacterium. He explained that while cases are rare, often with less than ten occurring annually along the Coast, an infection can become life-threatening.
MDEQ stated it does not monitor specifically for Vibrio bacteria because “these types of bacteria exist naturally and can be found in marine and estuarine waters and are not specific to pollution sources.”
Kathmann said people who are immunocompromised or have an open wound, as well as those with chronic illnesses such as liver disease, kidney disease and diabetes, are at a higher risk of any bacterial infection. He recommended that higher-risk populations wear water shoes at the beach.
An increasing number of advisories
According to a 2022 Mississippi State University study, the frequency of bacteria-related beach advisories along the Gulf Coast has increased since the MDEQ Beach Monitoring Program was established.
From 2010-2021, Hancock County saw a 422.2% increase in the number of advisories compared to 2000-2010, while Harrison County saw an increase of 348.3% and there was a 228.6% increase in Jackson County.
The total event days are calculated by summing the number of affected monitoring stations. For example, if a single event occurred for 2 days in an area spanning four monitoring stations, and each station issued its own beach closure (four closures), then the total days accounted for would be 8 (4 closures 2 days) for that single event. (MSU Extension ) Credit: MSU Extension
Harrison County saw the largest number of bacteria-related advisories by far, with 390 advisories issued from 2010-2021, compared to 87 in the previous decade. Harrison County has 13 MDEQ beach monitoring stations, compared to four in Hancock and Jackson Counties.
While the MSU study suggests the number of bacterial advisories is increasing in the long term, the annual number of advisories has decreased in the past five years, according to MDEQ’s historical data.
The MSU study found frequent bacteria-related beach closures could reduce gross taxable tourism sales by $152 million annually, about 8% of tourism sales in 2022 numbers.
However, Mississippi beach closures are uncommon, and according to the MSU study, there were fewer beach closures from 2010 to 2021 than in the previous decade, despite an increased number of bacteria-related advisories. Since 2021, there has been one beach closure.
A 2023 report by Environment America found that 64% of Mississippi beaches were found to have potentially unsafe levels of bacteria on more than 25% of all days tested in 2022. 84% of all beaches along the Gulf of Mexico were found to be potentially unsafe at least one day that year.
According to the report, beach pollution can come from a number of different sources, including urban development, sewage systems and agriculture.
“A number of factors influence how often bacteria levels exceed the advisory threshold. The bacteria we analyze for can be associated with various sources, including natural animal activity, sewer leaks, overflows and stormwater runoff,” MDEQ stated.
Amanda Free, an MSU researcher studying bacteria in Mississippi’s waters, said more research is required to understand the state’s water quality dynamics. Waters from across the continent eventually drain into the Mississippi Sound, and Mississippi’s unique characteristics make it difficult to compare its water quality to other states’ waters.
“There’s a lot of water coming from a lot of different places, mixing in this one area. So, that’s also one of the reasons why it’s so difficult to figure out where, if there are any pollutants, where they might be coming from because there are so many different sources,” Free said.
MSU is working on producing a model that would monitor the Mississippi Sound’s water quality in real time and is launching a new study to learn more about the bacteria that inhabit state waters. These studies are part of a wider effort to provide policymakers with data needed to inform management.
In addition to more research, Free said that improvements to local stormwater and sewage infrastructure would be a strong step in reducing the impact of urban development in the state’s coastal areas.
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