FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 1, 2008
Environmental group admits errors in beach report
COLUMBIA – A national environmental organization acknowledged errors in a report issued earlier this week that was critical of the quality of South Carolina’s beaches, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported today.
“We trust the Natural Resources Defense Council will correct their report in its printed and Web-based versions of Testing the Waters,” said Shannon Berry, beach monitoring coordinator in DHEC’s Bureau of Water. “We also call upon the NRDC to issue a news release correcting the errors.”
Berry said an e-mail sent late Thursday by Mark Dorfman, one of the authors of the NRDC’s report, said, “To our regret, we discovered after our report was released that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s monitoring data for South Carolina were incorrect.”
“We appreciate their response,” Berry said. “However, wrong impressions resulting from the errors need to be addressed by the NRDC.”
Berry said the NRDC should consider technical changes in the report’s formatting and timeliness along with releasing the final report to the states at the same time it is sent to the news media.
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Note to Editors:
Attached is the response sent today from Shannon Berry to Mark Dorfman, an author of the Testing the Waters report.
August 1, 2008
Mark,
Thank you for your response and detailed explanation. It has been quite a week answering questions from the media about last year’s water quality data.
I trust the Natural Resources Defense Council will correct the Web site and print versions of your report in all areas that affect South Carolina. I will assume that you and your colleagues will no longer refer to South Carolina as the “worst in the Southeast.”
As for repairing the damage that has been done to our state’s reputation, to our tourism industry, to the staff who work on this project and with our agency, I ask the NRDC to consider the following:
- The NRDC should issue a news release to all media outlets that received the original report correcting the erroneous data and comments based upon that inaccurate data.
- Correct both printed and Web-based versions of the Testing the Waters report to reflect corrections to the inaccurate comments and data.
- When you start preparing your report let the state program coordinators know how your report will be formatted. Most of us will be happy to supply data in a format you can easily use that fits your report. South Carolina’s data will be ready in November after the sampling season ends October 15th. Our data is available through our FOI office, summarized monthly and put on our Web site. You can see the May and June data now. Early in 2009 we will post our beach data to our Web site and include it in our own beach report.
- It would be helpful to the state program coordinators if the NRDC would release your report to us or to your Web site at the same time you release it to the media. We would then be able to respond to reporters on deadline.
- The timeliness of the report is also an issue. We are deep into the 2008 season when asked to talk about 2007 sampling. In South Carolina, we have added stations, deleted stations, gone though beach renourishment and begun studies on new areas.
- Our data for inspections and advisories will be available before November 15th for 2008 sampling. Please contact our FOI office for the full report. Please contact me if you want more information about the beaches that the report does not provide.
My final request is that everyone associated with the NRDC come to South Carolina. We are proud of our beautiful, clean beaches. We hope to see you and Nancy Stoner here next year.
Shannon Berry
SC DHEC Beach Monitoring Coordinator
For more information:
Thom Berry – (803) 898-3885
E-mail – berrytw@dhec.sc.gov
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