{"id":319902,"date":"2020-03-27T06:06:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T20:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=319902"},"modified":"2020-03-27T06:06:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T20:06:41","slug":"becq-continues-water-monitoring-to-ensure-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/becq-continues-water-monitoring-to-ensure-public-health\/","title":{"rendered":"BECQ continues water monitoring to ensure public health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality laboratory manager Charito Bautista shows water samples taken and being analyzed last Wednesday to ensure that the health of the beach-going, fish-loving public remains safeguarded. (IVA MAURIN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With people depending on fishing as a source of food, and some still going out to the beach as a form of recreation, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality continues to prioritize public health through its water quality monitoring program.<\/p>\n

Division of Environmental Quality director Jonathan Arriola said in an interview that BECQ\u2019s priority is to safeguard people\u2019s health and the environment. That means that, while BECQ is closed to the public, following the two-week government shutdown, the office continues to monitor the quality of CNMI waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater quality is very important,\u201d Arriola said. \u201cIt’s really both marine and freshwater. [We are] determining the amount of micro bacteria that’s in our water and making sure that our water standards, especially the microbial standards, are in compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that people don’t get sick because they’re swimming into an area that has a high number of bacteria, or fecal coliform is indicated in the water. We just want to make sure that [people] don\u2019t get sick,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

DEQ employees continue to sample beach sites all over the CNMI\u201450 on Saipan, 10 on Tinian, and 12 on Rota\u2014for bacteria levels, and beaches that would be found to have high bacteria counts are issued red flags, with advisories that people not swim nor fish in those locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are still out at the beaches, using the beaches for recreation, for fishing,\u201d BECQ\u2019s water quality surveillance manager Larry Maurin said. \u201cIn this time when we have a national public health crisis, we need to do everything we can to protect public health, keeping the public healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to prevent people from getting sick not just during this crisis, but anytime. It’s all the more important to be doing that right now, while there’s these [COVID-19 threats], we need to keep people healthy and out of the hospital as much as we can,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Samples taken from the beach sites on all three islands are processed and analyzed at the BECQ laboratory.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is for public health. If somebody goes fishing and the waters [are unsafe], people are going to be sick,\u201d BECQ laboratory manager Charito Bautista said.<\/p>\n

Aside from beach quality water monitoring, BECQ also monitors drinking water through its Safe Drinking Water program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With people depending on fishing as a source of food, and some still going out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[880,55],"class_list":["post-319902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-becq","tag-health-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}