Headed to the beach? Good chance it’s crappy.

Boats, kelp, and driftwood aren’t the only things floating in America’s coastal waters.

According to a report published Monday by the Environment America Research and Policy Center, 61% of America’s beaches experienced at least one day last year when indicators of fecal contamination were in excess of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Beach Action Value” — meaning they were potentially unsafe.

Testers routinely check waters for certain types of bacteria commonly found in the intestinal tracts of humans and other warm-blooded animals that indicate fecal contamination, namely enterococcus and E. coli, the latter of which represents around 97% of all of the coliform bacteria in human feces.

When assessing beach safety for enterococcus, the beach action value is 60 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters for marine and fresh

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