Dear friend, 

Environmental problems can sometimes feel abstract and remote. 

That is, until your day at the beach is ruined by polluted water.

It’s something that happens far too often in America, as we have documented in our series of Safe for Swimming? reports and data visualizations with Environment America Research & Policy Center, the latest edition of which we released in July. 

Our findings? More than 60% of U.S. beaches had at least one day in 2024 on which water quality testing found indicators of fecal contamination that could put the health of beachgoers at risk. To arrive at that conclusion, policy associate Nilou Yaar and I analyzed more than 100,000 beach testing results from cities, states and tribes in 31 states. 

By visiting the Safe for Swimming? website, you can learn how often the water at beaches in your state was potentially unsafe last year, find links to up-to-date information about beach safety; and learn about the concrete steps we can take now to make our beaches safer for swimming. 

So far, more than 20,000 people have visited the Safe for Swimming? website, and the message has been amplified further thanks to more than 2,000 stories in media outlets across the country, including Fox News and USA Today.

In other highlights:

• We said goodbye to the Frontier Group summer intern class of 2025, who contributed articles on why roads (still) don’t pay for themselves, the future of electric vehicles, the critical need for continued air quality monitoring in national parks, and the health benefits of green spaces. 
• Associate Director Elizabeth Ridlington updated our 2024 analysis of the economic benefits of transitioning government fleets to electric vehicles in Arizona. The good news: even without federal incentives, switching to EVs could still save more than $100 million for local and state fleets in Arizona, while reducing air pollution. 
• Policy Analyst James Horrox argued that bringing nature into cities is only a partial solution to the environmental impacts of urbanization. What’s needed is something even bolder: dissolving the urban/rural divide.

As always, you can find all our latest work on our website at www.frontiergroup.org.

All the best,

Tony Dutzik

Associate Director and Senior Policy Analyst