For the Latest Poop on Texas Beaches, Consult This Map

Here's something you might not have planned for if you're heading out to Texas beaches for spring break: swimming in poop.Texas Beach Watch has launched a map to track the presence of fecal bacteria along the coast, indicating the severity of the problem: green for OK, yellow for watch out and red for stay away. Actually, green stands for low levels of fecal bacteria, yellow means medium and red indicates high.The cleanest beaches -- or at least the ones with consistently low levels of fecal matter -- are down toward the Brownsville area, while Corpus Christi also gets good marks, except for Poenisch Park and Ropes Park, which show up red.Five waterways in the Corpus area also have medium levels of contamination. More popular spots in the area toward South Padre Island offer mostly greens, a few yellows and one red spot at the Bob Hall Pier.Farther up the coast results in a more unpleasant mix of yellows and reds, with Freeport particularly hit hard.  Continue reading...