Branford - Connecticut ranks 12th among 30 coastal states for the percentage of times last year tests at its public coastal beaches failed to meet water-quality standards due to pollution from stormwater, sewage, wildlife excrement and other sources.

Three Connecticut environmental groups, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and four state legislators joined in a news conference at Branford Point Beach Wednesday to call attention to the state-specific data in a National Resources Defense Council's report on the nation's coastal beaches, also released Wednesday.

According to the report, town, state and other public swimming beaches along Long Island Sound closed for a total of 135 days last year. Four percent of all water-quality tests conducted at the 66 beaches exceeded national standards for levels of bacteria that can sicken swimmers.

"Four percent is too much," said Leah Schmaltz, director of legal and legislative affairs for Save the Sound, a program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment.

Speakers at the event based their comments on an earlier version of the NRDC report that indicated that the state had more beach closures in 2008 than the previous year, calling it a sign that the state's commitment to investing in better stormwater management and sewage plant upgrades had slipped.

The version released Wednesday, however, indicated that there were fewer closures in 2008. According to Schmaltz, the discrepancy occurred because one set of numbers did not include closures of state beaches along with town and other public beaches, and it was still unclear late Wednesday how to resolve it.

"But the underlying message is still the same," she said: that more needs to be done to keep pollution out of Long Island Sound.

The report listed six beaches with the highest rates of excessive bacteria levels in 2008, among them Waterford's Kiddie Beach on the Niantic River. It showed that out of 19 water samples taken at the beach last summer, 16 percent had unhealthful bacteria levels.

Kiddie Beach is tested regularly by the Ledge Light Health District. Brian Savageau, senior sanitarian for Ledge Light, said a combination of the beach's natural features and the large numbers of waterfowl that use the area caused the pollution problems there.

"It's shallow and the water moves slowly through there," he said.

Thus far this summer, there have been no closures at Kiddie Beach or any others in the four coastal towns served by the Ledge Light, Savageau said. The health district tests water at beaches in Waterford, East Lyme, New London and Groton, as well as inland beaches in Ledyard.

Savageau said in the 13 years he's been testing water at local beaches, he's noticed continuous improvement. He attributed the trend to better management and oversight of sewage-treatment plants and septic systems by state and local environmental monitors.

Overall, New London County beaches were the state's cleanest, with 3 percent of tests showing excessive bacterial levels, compared to 6 percent in Middlesex County, the highest, and 5 percent in New Haven and Fairfield counties. Among 10 public beaches in the state not included in the report due to lack of monitoring data were two in Old Lyme, Soundview and White Sands.

In a separate list of 200 of the nation's most popular beaches, the NRDC noted two local ones: Ocean Beach Park in New London and Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly.

Ocean Beach was given a one-star rating for having had no closures in 2008.

Misquamicut received four stars for having had no closures in the last three years, for issuing water-quality advisories promptly, and for posting the information online.

j.benson@theday.com

www.nrdc.org/oceans