Our beaches in Cameron Parish were deemed to be contaminated. I was wondering if the beaches in Galveston to Corpus Christi were found to be contaminated also.

The National Resources Defense Council in June listed five Cameron Parish beaches on its roll of the nation’s 15 most contaminated beaches: Constance, Gulf Breeze, Little Florida, Long and Rutherford beaches.

But a state Department of Environmental Quality official told the American Press that the ranking was skewed because federal guidelines include testing for enterococcus bacteria, which “is probably not the best indicator of a pollution source.”

He noted that analyses performed after Hurricane Rita found the bacteria in Gulf waters even though evacuations and the destruction wrought by the storm made agricultural runoff — a prime source of such pollution — unlikely.

According to a 2007 study by Mississippi scientists, the microbes, which originate in animal digestive systems, can live in underwater sediment and register in large quantities in the water when seas are rough.

“Enterococci’s ability to survive for long periods in sediment may be due to desiccation,” the researchers wrote in their study, titled “Contribution of Sediment to High Enterococcus Counts Along the Northern Gulf of Mexico.”

“This occurs when sediments are exposed to fecal contamination from high tides or storm flow events. After the water level drops, the exposed sediment dries and the bacteria become desiccated. Enterococci are known to survive for weeks in the desiccated state in both salt and fresh water and growth can occur once the sediment is rewetted.”

The NRDC listing — of beaches whose water samples exceeded bacteria limits more than a fourth of the time from 2007 to 2011 — included no Texas beaches. But that’s not to say that the water along the Texas coast doesn’t occasionally exceed government health and safety limits on bacteria.

According to the NRDC data table for Texas, Galveston County beaches were, all told, closed or under a health advisory for more than 60 days last year. Beaches in Nueces County, whose seat is Corpus Christi, were under advisory or closed for 193 days in 2011.

The NRDC report ranked Louisiana last — 30th out of 30 states — in “beachwater quality,” with 29 percent of water samples exceeding federal standards. Texas ranked eighth; 5 percent of its samples overstepped the limit.

Louisiana officials test the water from more than two dozen beaches each week from April through October, Dr. B.J. Foch, the state Office of Public Health’s regional administrator, told American Press reporter John Guidroz in June.

High bacteria counts, he said, lead to swim advisories. According to the website for the state’s Beach Monitoring Program, the last such advisory was issued on Aug. 21 for a beach in Grand Isle State Park.

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Online: www.nrdc.org; www.texasbeachwatch.com; and http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov.

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The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.