&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water
(4305)
EPA 823-F-98-012
June 1998
Recent Accomplishments of
the BEACH Watch Program:
1998 Update
On May 23, 1997, USEPA
Administrator Carol
Browner formally an-
nounced the BEACH
Program to strengthen US.
beach programs and water
quality standards, better
inform the public, and
promote scientific research
to further protect the health
of beachgoers. The accom-
plishments of the BEACH
Program in its first year of
existence are significant
and indicate that EPA and
its state partners are
making progress to achieve
the program's goal to
"significantly reduce the,
risk of infection at the
nation's recreational waters
through improvements in
recreational water pro-
grams, communication,
and scientific advances."
This fact sheet discusses the
achievements of the BEACH
Program's first year.
Beach Survey
EPA conducted the first annual National Health Protection Survey of
Beaches in the spring of 1998. This voluntary survey of government
agencies collected information on beach health activities carried out at
local beaches. The survey asked questions like the following: Which
beaches are monitored and how frequently? Who conducts the monitor-
ing? Where and how often have advisories been posted? What are likely
pollution sources? What are the water quality standards?
The information from this survey was put on the Internet so the public
can view detailed beach information on local beaches at EPA's "Beach
Watch" web site at www.epa.gov/ost/beaches. The Phase I results
(summarized below) are currently available. Next year, EPA will con-
duct a Phase II survey to fill data gaps, expand the survey to inland
waters, and enhance mapping capabilities to help the public locate
specific beaches. In future years, EPA will conduct annual surveys and
provide up-to-date information on local beaches to the public.
Survey Participation
EPA distributed a total of 350 questionnaires to beach health protection
agencies requesting information on local beaches. The Agency received
159 responses which included information on about 1,000 beaches.
The respondents were almost exclusively local governmental agencies
from coastal counties, cities, or towns bordering the Great Lakes, the
Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean, although a
few respondents were state or regional (multi-county) districts. Ques-
tionnaires were received from 26 states
and Guam.
Location area of agencies providing beach
information for the 1998 survey
Total Number Number of Pereentof
of Coastal Coastal Counties Coastal Counties
Location Counties Participating Participating
Atlantic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Gulf of Mexico
Great Lakes
133
47
57
83
:•' ' 65,'.:. / ••
. ; . ;.23:v/-'.-.
35
46 ;
r 49%
49% :
61% '•'••'"
55%
Monitoring and Programs at
Local Beaches
The 159 survey respondents said that
there are 117 programs in place that
monitor beach water quality for bac-
teria or other pathogens, 124 agencies
have advisory or closing programs in
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Questionnaires were
received from:
Alabama
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Guam
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Texas
Virginia
Wisconsin
place to close the beach or restrict swimming when unsafe water
quality conditions are present, and 126 agencies have recreational
water quality standards for bacteria or other pathogens in the areas.
Where standards have been established, the following indicator
species are used:
"Averaging Period" Standard:
Indicators
Total Coliform
Fecal coliform
E. coli
Enterococci
Other
Number Using Indicator
30
69
25
26
1
Number Using Indicator
28
55
22
28
3
National Conference
&EPA
ret
Visit EPA's "BEACH Watch" web site at http://www.epa.gov/OST/
beaches.
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
and EPA cosponsored the first national beach health conference.
This conference was held October 15-16,1997, in Annapolis, Mary-
land. Conference attendees discussed current issues and activities related
to beach health and exchanged information about beach health initiatives
across the country. They identified unaddressed beach health needs and
assigned priorities to short-term and long-term actions. They also encour-
aged greater consistency among jurisdictions in beach monitoring and
notification. Representatives from the federal government, states, coun-
ties/cities, academic institutions, associations, environmental groups, and
others attended the conference.
Key recommendations and reactions are summarized in an EPA publica-
tion titled National Beach Conference, Report on Action Items (EPA-823-R-
98-004). ASTHO is preparing a detailed proceedings document and
expects to publish it later in 1998. See the last paragraph of this fact sheet
for information on how you may order a
copy of this document.
Regional Projects—EMPACT
In late 1997, EPA accelerated plans to build
local partnerships with the organizations
responsible for monitoring waters at
beaches. EPA's Office of Water teamed with
the Agency's Environmental Monitoring for
Public Access and Community Tracking
(EMPACT) program and selected five areas
as pilot projects to establish and improve:
• Strong state/local partnerships
• Bacterial indicators and monitoring
methods
BEACH Wotcb
Guide information
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Current Regional Projects
EPA Region 1: Charles River and Boston
Harbor, Massachusetts
EPA Regions 4 and 6: Florida coastal commu-
nities and the Gulf Coast
EPA Region 9: Southern California
Site-specific predictive tools
Ways to communicate time-relevant
information (such as postings and
closures) through a variety of media
(including use of the Internet, telephone
hotlines, newspapers, local radio and
TV reports, multilingual presentations,
etc.)
A key goal of this effort is to integrate national and local beach health
information and make it available to the public quickly and accurately. All
the regional projects plan to make this information available to the public
by using the Internet and other time-relevant notification approaches.
EPA is also Unking the survey data with local Internet information
"hubs." At the national level, EPA will design a long-term data system
that can quickly accommodate monitoring and advisory information on
beach health. The agency is also working to improve predictive tools
(rainfall and hydrodynamic models) to help get information to the public
before exposure might occur. Regional projects are under way in four EPA
regions.
Guidance and Technical Assistance
EPA is developing a technical training video and instruction manual to
explain recommended methods for bacteriological analysis. This will
include information on EPA's revised Method 1600: Membrane Filter Test
Method for Enterococd in Water (EPA-821-R-97-004). The Agency is also
funding the first phase of a multiyear effort to improve the accuracy of
methods for predicting beach water quality.
Clean Water Action Plan and the BEACH Action Plan
The Clean Water Action Plan, released by President Clinton and Vice
President Gore in February 1998, describes a series of actions designed to
strengthen core clean water programs which are carried out by several
different governmental agencies. As part of the "Clean Waters: Healthy
People" portion of this plan, for example, EPA will implement a series of
key actions to ensure that beaches are safe for swimming.
Specifically, EPA will soon develop and release a "BEACH Action Plan"
that describes priority actions for implementing beach monitoring and
notification programs at all levels of government. The plan will include
priority research, training, and guidance needs for the implementing
agencies. It will provide detailed program plans, identify plans to address
unresolved scientific research issues, describe water quality standards
issues, and address other aspects of the BEACH Program. The plan will be
available for review later this year. For a general overview, see EPA's
BEACH Program document (EPA-820-F-97-002).
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&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency (4305)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
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For Further Information...
Visit EPA's "BEACH Watch" web site at . This site contains key information for EPA's BEACH Program.
This on-line directory will eventually become the national information hub for
up-to-date information on beach health protection activities throughout the
United States, including water quality monitoring, local protection programs,
and other beach-related programs. You can order documents by calling the
National Center for Environmental Publications and Information (NCEPI) at
1-800-490-9198, by writing them at 11029 Kenwood Road, Building 5,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242, or by faxing them at 513-489-8695.
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