&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
California 2012 Swimming Season
September 2013
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. This fact
sheet highlights the data submitted to EPA by the
State of California for the 2012 swimming season.
2012 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
California monitored 414 coastal beaches in
17 counties during the 2012 swimming season
(Figure 1 and Table 1). When monitoring results
at swimming beaches show that levels of specific
indicator bacteria in the water exceed applicable
water quality standards, California officials issue a
beach advisory, warning people of possible risks of
swimming.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2012, of the 414 coastal beaches that California
monitored, 152 (37 percent) had at least one
notification action (Figure 2). This is approximately
the same as in previous years.
EPA320-F-13-056
Figure 1. California coastal counties
Contra Costa
Alameda
Santa Cruz
Marin
San Francisco
San Mateo
Table 1. Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2012
County
ALAMEDA
CONTRA COSTA
DEL NORTE
HUMBOLT
LOS ANGELES
MARIN
MENDOCINO
MONTEREY
ORANGE
SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO
SAN LUIS OBISPO
SAN MATEO
SANTA BARBARA
SANTA CRUZ
SONOMA
VENTURA
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
2
1
12
29
49
20
20
24
22
67
7
16
43
34
27
7
34
414
Monitored
2
1
12
29
49
20
20
24
22
67
7
16
43
34
27
7
34
414
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
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Figure 2: Percent of beaches with one or
more notification actions
Figure 4: Percent of beach days open
and safe for swimming
Figure 3: Duration of beach notification
actions in 2012
8-30 days
19%
Over 30 days
3%
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
California issued 759 notification actions during
the 2012 swimming season. Typically California
lifts an action when follow-up monitoring indicates
that water quality complies with applicable
standards. For the majority of actions (78 percent)
water quality returned to normal and beaches were
deemed safe for swimming within a week or less
(Figure 3).
What percentage of days were beaches under
a notification action?
EPA calculates the total available beach days and
the number of beach days with notification actions
to better track trends over time. Total available
beach days are determined by multiplying the
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
|§To the Beach)
95.4%
96.8%
95.6%
93.8%
93.9%
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2012 EPA calculated
that 128,913 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the 414 monitored California
beaches. California reported notification actions on
5,952 days, meaning that beaches were open and
safe for swimming approximately 95 percent of
the time. This continues the trend of consistently
high percentages of open beach days at beaches in
California (Figure 4).
For More Information
For information about the California beach
program contact:
Michael Gjerde
California State Water Resources Control Board
Tel: 916-341-5283
e-mail: mgjerde@waterboards.ca.gov
For general information about beaches visit:
http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/beaches/.
For information about a specific beach visit:
http://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/.
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