Georgia beaches did well on a national ranking of water quality.

The surf at the state's public beaches ranked eighth best of 30 coastal and Great Lakes states monitored for federal water quality standards, according to a report released Tuesday by a national environmental advocacy organization.

Georgia ranked higher than its coastal neighbors Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's 18th annual report ranked South Carolina beaches the sixth worst in the nation for water quality. NRDC uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to compile the report.

Nationally, the NRDC report called "Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches," found the second-highest number of beach closings and advisories in its 18 years of studying the data. More than 20,000 days of closings and advisories were issued at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches, according to the report.

In Georgia last year, 4 percent of water samples taken in shallow waters off 27 public beaches exceeded the federal standard for enterococci bacteria. The bacteria, which can spike due to sewage spills, storm water runoff and other sources, increases the risk of gastrointestinal illness in swimmers.

According to the report, poor water quality often is caused by aging and poorly-designed sewage and storm water systems, as well as development that reduces nature's pollution filters: wetlands, dunes and beach grass.

When violations occur, local authorities usually post beach advisories to warn people, but they can also temporarily close a beach. The last advisory issued in Georgia was in May, for North Beach at Gould's Inlet on St. Simons Island, according to the state Coastal Resources Division Web site.

Georgia's beaches totaled 181 health advisory days last year, an 11 percent decline from 2006.

Jennette Gayer with the environmental advocacy group Environment Georgia said in a statement: "The good news is, Georgians saw a reduction in health and pollution concerns along our coast, potentially because of drought conditions, but we still need to identify what is causing remaining unsafe levels of pollution at our beaches and eliminate them."

Local and national environmental organizations called on Congress to pass the Beach Protection Act, now pending in Congress, that would provide funding for beach water sampling and require faster testing methods. The bill passed the House in April and could be voted on by the Senate this week.

The NRDC report cited Kings Ferry on the Ogeechee River as the Georgia beach with the most violations. In 2007, one-quarter of the water samples taken off the beach exceeded the federal water quality standard. According to the report, Kings Ferry is sampled four times a year. Beaches on Tybee Island are sampled once a week, as are beaches on Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island.

Of the Georgia beaches that are tested weekly, the worst were St. Andrews Picnic Area on Jekyll Island with exceedances 13 percent of the time and Jekyll Clam Creek with exceedances 12 percent of the time.

The beaches with the best test results — zero exceedances in weekly tests — were South Dunes, 4-H Camp and the Convention Center on Jekyll Island; and the Fifth Street Crossover and Massengale on St. Simons Island.