the nrdc raided 200 of the nation's most popular beaches. among the best? >> delaware, new hampshire, and virginia. with alaska, north carolina, hawaii right behind them. >> reporter: shall didn't fair nearly as well. >> most contaminated last year were louisiana, ohio, indiana, and illinois. >> reporter: those at great lakes had some of the worst rated beaches, the nrd says chicago is a shining example. >> we test our beaches five times a week or more if necessary and then notify the public of those results as soon as possible. >> reporter: but in these tough economic times, some communities are cutting back on testing, meaning a day at the beach might not be the good clean fun it once seemed. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. >>> the nrdc offers some tips to avoid a bad beach experience. avoid going to a beach after a rainstorm and don't go in the water when you have cuts or scrapes. >>> stay with us. "news 4 today" continues now at 5:00 a.m.

the nrdc raided 200 of the most popular beaches. among the best -- >> delaware, new hampshire, and virginia. with alaska, north carolina and hawaii right behind them. >> reporter: some didn't fare nearly as well. >> most contaminated last year were louisiana, ohio, indiana, and illinois. >> reporter: though the great lakes had some of the worse rated beaches, the nrdc says chicago is a shining example. >> we test our beaches five time as week or more if necessary and notify the public of those results as soon as possible. >> reporter: but in the tough economic times, some communities are cutting back on testing. meaning a day at the beach might not be the good clean fun it once seemed. the good news, tougher standards are on the way but the bad news is states won't have to adopt them for another four years. in washington, i'm brian mooar, news4. >>> here is another sign of the economic times. americans are not taking cruises as often as they used to. the number of cruise ships to set sail from the u.s. ports in 2008 declined nearly

the nrdc rated00 of the sti 200 of the nation's most popular beaches.mong the best -- >> delaware, new hampshire, and virginia. with alaska, north carolina, and hawaii rye behind them. >> reporter: some didn't fare nearly as well. >> most contaminated last year were louisiana, ohio, indiana, and illinois. >> reporter: though the great lakes had some of the worst rated beaches, the nrdc says chicago is a shining example. >> we test our beaches five times a week or more if necessary. and then notify the public of those results as soon as possible. >> reporter: but in these tough economic times, some communities are cutting backing on testing. meaning a day at the beach. night not be the good clean fun it once seemed. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. >> we have showers in washington. there's strong cells, as you can see, coming through charles county now with some thunder and lightning. also possibly gusty winds and they will be out over the bay in another 30 minutes. bit more into calvert and charlie county. see you at 11:00. back to you. >> that's our

. >> it is really true the report is done by the nrdc. they do this every year and you can find it on wusa9.com. i went on this morning and didn't see it front and center but they are the ones that completed the report. >> reporter: what about the cities cleaning up the beaches? is it expensive? any federal dollars? >> not that we can find. they are right now continuing to just monitor it and take the samples and there are some beaches across the country that are do this but the worst area is this great lakes. if you are going on vacation this is where you need to pay attention. >> right. >> and if you are going to our beaches here on the eastern shore or right here in new jersey, delaware, virginia make sure you go to beach six. >> yeah, really. sounds good. and don't contribute to the pollution either. >> true. >> thank you. >>> next in sports the redskins get ready to open camp and the nationals power show rolls on. >>> but first the signs of now. we're talking more about beaches. according to forbes traveler.com which beach in the u.s

. >> in another 2004 administrative law case dealing with environmental issues, nrdc versus abraham,h administration regulation and reinstate a clinton administration environmental rule that had never even become final. in this case, it appears that you also fairly narrowly interpreted chevron deference when striking down epa adoptions of reasonable regulations. if you are elevated to supreme court, do you intend to replace an agency's policy decision with your own personal policy opinions as it appears you did in both the abraham case? >> no, sir. in that case, we were talking about, in deciding an issue, whether the agency had followed its own procedures. in changing policy. we weren't substituting our judgment for that of the agency. we were looking at the agency's own regulations as to the procedure that it had to follow in order to change an approach by the agency. so that was a completely different question. with respect to deference to administrative bodies in case after case, where chevron deference required deference, i have voted in favor of upholding administrative -- exec

. >> in another 2004 administrative law case dealing with environmental issues, nrdc versus abraham, you voted to strike down a bush administration regulation and reinstate a clinton administration environmental rule that had never even become final. in this case, it appears you also fairly narrowly interpreted chevron deference when striking down e.p.a. adoptions of reasonable regulations. if you were elevated to supreme court, do you intend to replace an agency's policy decisions with your own personal policy opinions as it appears you did in both -- in the abraham case? >> no, sir. in that case, we were talking about and deciding an issue of whether the agency had followed its own procedures. in changing policy. we weren't substituting our judgment for that of the agency. we were looking at the agency's own reppings as to the procedure that it had to follow in order to change an approach by the agency. so that was a completely different question. with respect to deference to administrative bodies in case after case where chevron deference required deference i have voted in favor o

. >> in another 2004 administrative law case dealing with environmental issues, nrdc versus abraham, you voted to strike down a bush administration regulation and reinstate a clinton administration environmental rule that had never even become final. in this case, it appears you also fairly narrowly interpreted chevron deference when striking down epa adoptions of reasonable regulations. if you were elevated to the supreme court, do you intend to replace an agency's policy decisions with your own personal policy opinions as it appears you did in both in the abraham case? >> no, sir. in that case, we were talking about and deciding an issue of whether the agency had followed its own procedures in changing policy. we weren't substituting our judgment for that of the agency. we were looking at the agency's own regulations as to the procedure that it had to follow in order to change an approach by the agency, so that was a completely different question. with respect to deference to administrative bodies, in case after case, where chevron deference required deference, i have voted in favo