EPA's  BEACH  Report:
            Hawaii  2008  Swimming  Season
            July 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 Hawaii for the 2008 swimming
season.
Under the BEACH Act,  almost all of Hawaii's
coastal waters are considered "beaches." A
beach can be a cliff, rocky shoreline, or a
sandy stretch of coastline. As long as the
water along the coastline is used for full
contact water recreation, it is considered a
beach.
Hawaii's monitoring program focuses on
intensity of use, as the guide in the selection
of beaches to be monitored and the frequency
of sampling. Hawaii's 444 beaches represent
about 297 miles of coastline, of which 91
miles are monitored. On Oahu, where most
of the State's population resides, 144 beaches
represents about 125 miles of coastline, of
which 55 miles are monitored.
Figure 1. Hawaii coastal counties.
 Kauai

         /  Honolulu

             CS  /     Maui
Table 1.  Breakdown of monitored and
        unmonitored coastal beaches by
        county for 2007.
County
HAWAII
HONOLULU
KAUAI
MAUI
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
104
144
73
123
444
Monitored
35
133
37
43
248
Not
Monitored
69
11
36
80
196

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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, Hawaii's approach is to issue a
beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact
with the ocean water. A total of 7 beaches had at
least one advisory issued during the 2008 swimming
season. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of
notification action durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Hawaii'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 Hawaii's
monitored beaches possibly affected by various
pollution sources. In 2008,100 percent of the
beaches included storm-related runoff as a known
potential source.

For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Hawaii:
www.hawaii.gov/health/environmental/water/
cleanwater/index.html
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
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                   2       3-7     8-30
                  Duration of Actions (Days)
                                            >30
Figure 3: Beach days with
          and without
          notification
          actions.
            Beach days with
               an action:
                 64
                 (0.1%)
                     Beach days
                    with no action
                       90,456
                       (99.9%)
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
112
16
14%
1%
2007 2008
115 248
8 7
7% 3%
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