Washingtonians flocking to the beach should be happy to know coastal beaches on the Delmarva Peninsula are among the best for water quality.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has given Ocean City, Maryland five out of five stars and Deleware’s Rehobeth, Dewey and Bethany Beach four out of five stars. Nancy Stoner is with NRDC. She says Chesapeake Bay beaches didn’t fair as well, dragging the state of Maryland down to a rank of 14 nationwide.

The beach rankings are new to the environmental group’s annual beach water quality report, which found there were fewer beach closings and health warnings to swimmers in 2007 than the year before.

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