EPA's BEACH Report:
Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island for the 2008 swimming
season.
From May to September 2008, the Rhode
Island Beach Program collected approximately
2,800 samples from all its monitored saltwater
beaches. All samples were analyzed for
Enterococci, as required in the federal BEACH
Act.
Figure 1. Rhode Island coastal counties.
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2008.
County
BRISTOL
KENT
NEWPORT
PROVIDENCE
WASHINGTON
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
20
16
92
8
102
238
Monitored
4
4
23
0
43
74
Not
Monitored
16
12
69
8
59
164
-------
2008 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach, Rhode Island's approach is to
issue a beach advisory that warns people to avoid
contact with the water. A total of 18 monitored
beaches had at least one advisory issued during
the 2008 swimming season. About 76 percent of
Rhode Island's 54 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 Rhode Island'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 Rhode Island's
investigated monitored beaches possibly affected by
various pollution sources. In 2008, 92 percent of the
beaches were listed as having unidentified sources of
pollution.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Rhode Island:
www.ribeaches.org/index.cfm
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
27
2 3-7 8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3: Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
127
(2%)
Beach days
with no action
7,199
(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
74
17
23%
6%
2007
68
15
22%
1%
2008
74
18
24%
2%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by
possible pollution sources (74 beaches).
Percent of beaches
0 10 20 30 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)
0
• 3
—
0
0
0
3
3
0
0
0
1
0
^H'
8
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
------- |