This week, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual “Testing the Waters” survey ranked New York the sixth worst of 30 coastal states when it comes to water quality at the beaches. It's a problem directly linked to development along the shore. Officials blame heavy rain and sewage spills for New York’s drop in the survey from 19th in 2010 to 24th in 2011. Whenever it rains hard enough, septic runoff from countless homes cascades right into the water. Sometimes the tidal flow isn't strong enough to wash the pollutants away quickly enough and officials are then forced to ban bathing to give beach bacteria levels time to drop.

For more information about ocean water quality, please visit www.nrdc.org.