a EPA's BEACH Report: Illinois 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 Illinois for the 2008 swimming season. Figure 1. Illinois coastal counties. Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2008. County COOK LAKE TOTALS Total Beaches 49 19 68 Monitored 39 13 52 Not Monitored 10 6 16 ------- 2008 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? When water quality standards are exceeded at a particular beach, Illinois' approach is to issue a beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact with the water. A total of 49 monitored beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2008 swimming season. About 93 percent of Illinois' 397 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 Illinois' 2008 swimming season, actions were reported about 11 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? Possible sources of pollution affecting Illinois' investigated monitored beaches in 2008 are mostly unidentified (Figure 4). For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For information about beaches in Illinois: www.earth911.org/waterquality/ default.asp?cluster=17 Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 350 -i 300 2 3-7 8-30 Duration of Actions (days) >30 Figure 3: Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 541 (11%) 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 67 54 81% 12% 2007 51 49 96% 17% 2008 52 49 94% 11% Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by possible pollution sources (51 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) 0 1 2 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wofe: A single beach may have multiple sources. 100 ------- |