Here's something to ponder while you're driving down to the Georgia beaches this summer.
The number of closings or environmental warnings at Georgia's beaches due to pollution jumped threefold last year, according to an environmental group's study based on state and federal data.
Georgia fell from No. 7 to No. 11 in water quality in the annual 30-state survey released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, ranking the state behind neighbors Florida and the Carolinas but ahead of Alabama and other Southeastern states.
The good news is that most of the warnings and beach closings due to polluted water were isolated to a few beaches. Overall, most of the state's beaches are still pretty clean, said Jon Devine, an attorney with the environmental group.
"I wouldn't characterize it as alarming," Devine said. "Relatively speaking, [Georgia] is better than the national average."
The state's dirtiest beaches, according to the group, were Kings Ferry in Chatham County and the St. Andrews Picnic Area and Jekyll Clam Creek in Glynn County.
Those areas accounted for the majority of the beach advisories or closures issued on 209 days last year due to high bacteria levels.
Overall, about 4 percent of the water samples taken at 27 Georgia beaches exceeded federal bacteria standards last year, according to the NRDC -- up from 2 percent a year earlier.
Jennette Gayer, policy advocate at another group, Environment Georgia, said just because most of the state's beaches are better than other states doesn't mean the rise in beach closures should be overlooked.
"When we have more than 200 closures [or advisories] over a year ... I don't think we're headed in the right direction," she said.
The survey is based on last year's data. Currently, the NRDC says Louisiana has the most polluted beaches in the country because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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