EPA's BEACH Report: South 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 South Carolina for the 2008 swimming season. The beach program staff in South Carolina wants your input. Please log onto our Web site, look at the data that is posted, and let us know if we can provide information that is more helpful. Our Web site address is: www.scdhec.gov/beach. And, come to South Carolina—beautiful places and smiling faces await you. Figure 1. South Carolina coastal counties. Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2008. Total County Beaches BEAUFORT CHARLESTON COLLETON GEORGETOWN HORRY TOTALS 4 5 1 5 8 23 Monitored 4 5 1 5 8 23 Not Monitored 0 0 0 0 0 0 ------- 2008 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? When water quality standards are exceeded at a particular beach, South Carolina's approach is to issue a beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact with the ocean water. A total of 7 monitored beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2008 swimming season. About 72 percent of South Carolina's 18 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 South Carolina's 2008 swimming season, actions were reported about 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 South Carolina's investigated monitored beaches possibly affected by various pollution sources. In 2008, 70 percent of the beaches were listed as having no known sources of pollution. For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ Information regarding sample results is available at the South Carolina DHEC Web site at www.scdhec.gov, www.earth911.com or by contacting DHEC at (843) 238-4378. 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: 36 (1%) Beach days with no action 3,483 (99%) 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 23 9 39% 8% 2007 23 10 43% 2% 2008 23 7 30% 1% Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by possible pollution sources (23 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) • 4 — 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 r • 9 I 22 70 Note: A single beach may have multiple sources. ------- |