EPA's BEACH Report:
North Carolina 2008 Swimming Season
May 2009
Introduction
The BEACH Act of 2000 requires that coastal
and Great Lakes states and territories report
to EPA on beach monitoring and notification
data for their coastal recreation waters. The
BEACH Act defines coastal recreation waters as
the Great Lakes and coastal waters (including
coastal estuaries) that states, territories,
and authorized tribes officially recognize or
designate for swimming, bathing, surfing, or
similar activities in the water.
This fact sheet summarizes beach monitoring
and notification data submitted to EPA by the
State of North Carolina for the 2008.
The North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources' Division
of Environmental Health administers the
Recreational Water Quality Program, which
monitors the coastal waters along North
Carolina. The 320 miles of ocean coastline and
2.2 million acres of estuarine waters consisting
of coastal rivers, bays and sounds give
residents and visitors many recreational areas
for swimming and water play.
North Carolina's coastal recreational waters
are known for their pristine water quality;
however, frequent monitoring is important to
keep the public informed about any localized
problems that may occur. The Recreational
Water Quality Program monitors 240 sites
along the coast and in 2008 collected 6,180
water samples for recreational waters,
most of them on a weekly basis during the
swimming season, April through October.
North Carolina's ocean beaches rarely have
swimming advisories and in 2008 only three
out of the 19 beaches under advisory was an
ocean beach. The other 16 swimming areas
were located on sounds and rivers where
the lack of tidal action and circulation often
contribute to poor water quality.
Figure 1. North Carolina coastal counties.
Camden
Pasquotank
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county by 2008.
^^•1 County
BEUFORT
BERTIE
BRUNSWICK
CAMDEN
CARTERET
CHOWAN
CRAVEN
CURRITUCK
DARE
HYDE
NEW
HANOVER
ONSLOW
RAM LI CO
PASQUOTANK
RENDER
PERQUIMANS
TYRRELL
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
11
1
37
2
53
1
8
9
57
5
20
18
9
1
6
1
1
240
Monitored
11
1
37
2
53
1
8
9
57
5
20
18
9
1
6
1
1
240
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
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2008 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported and
how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach, North Carolina's approach is to
issue a beach advisory that warns people to avoid
contact with the ocean water. A total of 19 monitored
beaches had at least one advisory issued during the
2008 swimming season. About 63 percent of North
Carolina's 24 notification actions lasted only one day.
Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification
action durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For North Carolina's 2008 swimming season, actions
were reported less than 1 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2008 results compare to previous years?
Table 2 compares 2008 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources possibly affect
investigated monitored beaches?
Figure 4 displays the percentage of North Carolina's
investigated monitored beaches possibly affected by
various pollution sources. In 2008, 66 percent of the
beaches identified storm related runoff as a possible
source of pollution.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For more information concerning North Carolina's
beaches, please visit:
www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/shellfish/
Water_Monitoring/RWQweb/home.htm.
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
15
2 3-7 8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3: Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
168
(0.3%)
Beach days
with no action:
51,192
(99.7%)
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2006-2008.
Number of monitored
beaches
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
2006
243
20
8%
0.9%
2007
243
13
5%
0.4%
2008
240
19
8%
0.3%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (240 beaches).
0 10 20
30
Percent of beaches
40 50 60 70
80 90 100
Investigated / no sources found
Non-storm related runoff
Storm-related runoff
Agricultural runoff
Boat discharge
Cone, animal feeding operation
Combined sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow
Publicly-owned treatment works
Sewer line leak or break
Septic system leakage
Wildlife
Other (identified) source(s)
Unidentified source(s)
11
2
24
166
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
49
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