&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
2012 Swimming Season
June 2013
EPA820-F-13-014
Introduction
The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000
authorizes EPA to provide grants to coastal and Great Lakes states, territories, and
eligible tribes to monitor their coastal beaches for bacteria that indicate the possible
presence of disease-causing pathogens and to notify the public when there is a potential
risk to public health. The BEACH Act requires that recipients of those grants report
their coastal beach monitoring and notification data to EPA, and that EPA maintain an
electronic database of that data, accessible to the public, so that they can make informed
choices about where to swim. To support reducing the risk of exposure to disease-
causing pathogens at recreational beaches, EPA is posting the latest data submitted to
EPA about beach closings and advisories for the 2012 swimming season. This fact sheet
also highlights recent developments in EPA's beach program.
Figure 1: Number of monitored coastal recreation beaches by state
Total
= 3,762 Beaches
Grand Portage Tribe: 10
Makah Tribe: 6
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2012 Swimming Season Results
When monitoring results at swimming beaches
show that levels of specific indicator bacteria
in the water exceed applicable water quality
standards, states, territories, and tribes issue
a beach advisory, warning people of possible
risks of swimming; or close the beach to public
swimming until further monitoring finds that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
Some states and local agencies, in addition to
water sampling, use models or other predictive
tools as a basis for issuing notification actions at
beaches.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2012 of the 3,762 coastal beaches that were
monitored (Figure 1), 1,504 (40 percent) had at
least one advisory or closure (Figure 2). This
is about a 3 percent decrease from the 2011
swimming season. One reason for the decrease
was that Hawaii did not issue as many rainfall-
based advisories in 2012 as they did in 2011 (72 in
2012, 264 in 2011). In addition, New York and
Connecticut issued fewer advisories as compared
to 2011, the year of Hurricane Irene's landfall.
How many notification actions were issued
and how long did they last?
A total of 5,725 notification actions (i.e., advisories
or closings) were issued by states, territories,
and tribes during the 2012 swimming season.
Typically an action is lifted when follow-up
monitoring proves that water quality complies
with applicable standards. For the majority of
cases in 2012 (66 percent) water quality returned
to normal and beaches were deemed safe for
swimming within one or two days (Figure 3).
Only rarely (13 percent) did notification actions
last more than a week.
Figure 2: Percent of beaches with one or more
notification actions
Figure 3: Duration of beach notification actions
in 2012
8-30 days
10%
Over 30 days
[3%
Table 1. Data collected on beaches, advisories, and closings
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Number of monitored
beaches
Number of beaches
affected by advisories
or closings
3,786
1,208
3,782
3,654
3,650
3,762
1,616
1,362
1,575
1,504
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Figure 4: Percent of beach days open and safe
for swimming
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
• To the Beach
• To the Beach)
II To the Beach )
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
t
> 95.5%
95.2%
95.3%
95.1%
95.0%
What percentage of days were beaches under
a notification action?
EPA calculates the total available beach days
and the number of beach days with advisories
or closings to better track trends over time. To
calculate total available beach days, we multiply
the length of each state's and territory's beach
season by the number of beaches in the state or
territory. For 2012 EPA determined that 695,527
beach days were associated with the swimming
seasons of 3,762 monitored beaches. Notification
actions were reported on 31,163 days, meaning
that beaches were under an advisory or closed
about 4.5 percent of the time, consistent with the
past several years (Figure 4).
Protecting your local beaches
Beach advisories and closings can result from a
number of sources: overflows from sewer systems,
either by design or due to blockages; treatment
plant malfunctions; stormwater runoff after
rainfall; waste from boats; leaking septic systems;
or pet and wildlife waste. To help minimize the
risk to beachgoers, EPA is helping communities
build and properly operate sewage treatment
plants, working to control overflows to reduce
them as much as possible, and working with the
U.S. Coast Guard to reduce discharges from boats
and larger ships. To find out more about what you
can do to help, visit: http://water.epa.gov/type/
oceb/beaches/dosdonts.cfmlprotect. To find out
more about sources of beach pollution in your
area, contact your local beach program: http://
water.epa.gov/type/oceb/beaches/whereyoulive_
state.cfm.
Recent Developments in EPA's
Beach Program
EPA Improved Access to Online Beach
Monitoring and Notification Data (BEACON)
Clean Water Act section 406(e) requires EPA to
make available a national database that contains
state reported beach monitoring and notification
data. In 2003 EPA created the BEACON (BEach
Advisory and Closing Online Notification) system
to meet the Agency's BEACH Act requirements.
EPA upgraded the BEACON system in 2012 to use
state-of-the-art map navigation and report display
tools. Maps are dynamically produced and show
the location of more than 6,000 beaches and the
related water quality monitoring stations on road
or satellite base maps. Reports can combine both
notification data and water quality monitoring
data, and new state data can be displayed every
2 hours, http://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/
2072 Recreational Water Quality Criteria
EPA has released its final 2012 Recreational Water
Quality Criteria. The Agency's new criteria reflect
the latest scientific knowledge, public comments,
and external peer review. They are designed to
protect the public from exposure to harmful levels
of pathogens while participating in water-contact
activities such as swimming, wading, and surfing
in all waters designated for such recreational uses.
For more information about the criteria, including
the research EPA conducted, visit: http://water.
epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/standards/criteria/
health/recreation/index.cfm.
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National List of Beaches
EPA updated and improved the National List of
Beaches on its website. The BEACH Act requires
EPA to periodically identify and publish a list
of discrete coastal recreation waters adjacent to
beaches or similar points of access that are used
by the public. The Agency must also identify
whether there is a monitoring and notification
program for each beach.
EPA first published the National List of Beaches in
2004, with updates in 2008 and 2010. The National
List of Beaches contains beaches identified by the
states, tribes and territories ("state") under the
BEACH Act in U.S. coastal and Great Lake waters.
The list does not include beaches on inland waters
because they are not subject to the BEACH Act.
The National Lists of Beaches for the 2004, 2008,
and 2010 swimming seasons are static pdf files,
organized by state and county. For some territories
and Hawaii, the beaches are listed by island.
Alaska's beaches are reported by community.
Beach names are listed with their monitoring
status for the selected swimming season.
The improved list is available in a dynamic
format that links to EPA's Beach Advisory and
Closing On-line Notification (BEACON) system
where further details about each beach can
also be found. The list contains the most recent
information reported to EPA by coastal and
Great Lakes states and can be found at:
http://ofmpub.epa.gOV/apex/beacon2/f ?p=BEACO
N2:12:10838337754900::NO::P12_YEARS:Current.
For More Information
For general information about beaches visit:
http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/beaches/beaches_
index.cfm.
For information about a specific beach visit:
http://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/.
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