EPA's BEACH Report:
Oregon 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
Oregon for the 2008 swimming season.
Between May and September each year, the Oregon
Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) helps protect
people who play in coastal waters that are designated
for swimming, bathing, surfing, and similar water
contact activities.
During the 2008 swimming season, the OBMP
monitored sampling sites at 26 recreational beaches
along the Oregon coast. Ocean water is sampled either
once a week or every two weeks. The beach program
works with other state agencies to collect and test water
samples, and when bacteria levels exceed the state
standard of 158 enterococci organisms per lOOmL of
ocean water sampled a water contact advisory is issued.
Oregon uses various methods for notifying the public
about water contact advisories, including media
releases, phone calls to city and county officials,
email notification to local governments and interested
stakeholders, statewide advisory hotline, signage
at beach access points, posting information on the
program Web site.
The OBMP works with the Oregon Coastal Atlas
to share and display beach water quality monitoring
data on the Web. The Atlas is a collaborative project
of the Oregon Ocean-Coastal Management Program,
and is considered one of the Nation's most useful and
comprehensive information sources about a State
shoreline. To view recent and historic beach sampling
data at the Atlas, visit www.coastalatlas.net/learn/
topics/waterquality/beach.
Figure 1. Oregon coastal counties.
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2008.
County
CLATSOP
COOS
CURRY
DOUGLAS
LANE
LINCOLN
TILLAMOOK
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
7
3
13
1
4
18
13
59
Monitored
4
2
7
0
1
6
6
26
Not
Monitored
3
1
6
1
3
12
7
33
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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, Oregon's approach is to issue a
beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact
with the ocean water. A total of 10 monitored beaches
had at least one advisory issued during the 2008
swimming season. About 56 percent of Oregon's 16
notification actions lasted two days or less. Figure 2
presents a full breakdown of notification action
durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Oregon's 2008 swimming season, actions were
reported about 2 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 Oregon's
investigated monitored beaches possibly affected
by various pollution sources. In 2008, 50 percent of
the beaches included sanitary sewer overflows as a
possible source.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information on Oregon's monitored beaches and
sampling results visit
www.healthoregon.org/beach, or
contact (971) 673-0431.
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
2 3-7 8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3: Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
63
(2%)
Beach days
with no action:
3,109
(98%)
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
20
8
40%
1%
2007
20
14
70%
4%
2008
26
10
38%
2%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (4 beaches).
o
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)
\J
1. I
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
50
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