EPA's BEACH Report:
Georgia 2009 Swimming Season
May 2010
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 Georgia for the 2009 swimming
season.
Figure 1. Georgia coastal counties.
Liberty CV,
V
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2009.
County
CAM DEN
CHATHAM
GLYNN
LIBERTY
MCINTOSH
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
2
13
19
1
6
41
Monitored
0
9
16
0
2
27
Not
Monitored
2
4
3
1
4
14
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2009 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach, Georgia'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
2009 swimming season. Fifty percent of Georgia's
28 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 Georgia's 2009 swimming season, actions were
reported about 4 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2009 results compare to previous years?
Table 2 compares 2009 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources possibly affect
investigated monitored beaches?
Sources of pollution possibly affecting Georgia's
investigated monitored beaches were not identified
in 2009 (Figure 4).
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Georgia:
http://GaHealthyBeaches.org
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
14
2 3-7 8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3: Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
342
(4%)
Beach days
with no action
8,243
(96%)
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2007-2009.
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
2007
27
14
52%
2%
2008
27
12
44%
1%
2009
27
10
37%
4%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (27 beaches).
0 10 20 30
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)
Percent of beaches
40 50 60 70
90 100
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
100
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