&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Alabama 2011 Swimming Season
July 2012
EPA820-F-12-009
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 Alabama for the 2011 swimming season.
2011 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Alabama monitored 25 beaches in two counties
during the 2011 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, Alabama officials issue a beach
advisory warning people of possible risks of
swimming.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2011, of the 25 coastal beaches that Alabama
monitored, two (8 percent) had at least one
notification action. This is a decrease over previous
years (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Alabama coastal counties.
I County
BALDWIN
MOBILE
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
21
4
25
Monitored
21
4
25
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
Table 1. Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2011.
-------
Figure 2: Percent of beaches with one or
more notification actions
Figure 3: Duration of beach notification
actions in 2011
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Alabama issued six notification actions during the
2011 swimming season. Typically Alabama lifts an
action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
For five of the six actions (86 percent) water quality
returned to normal and beaches were deemed safe
for swimming within one or two days (Figure 3).
The other action lasted three days.
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
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2011 EPA determined
that 3,825 beach days were associated with the
Figure 4: Percent of beach days open
and safe for swimming
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
swimming seasons of the 25 monitored Alabama
beaches. Alabama reported notification actions on
9 days, meaning that beaches were open and safe
for swimming about 99.8 percent of the time. This
continues the annual trend of very few actions for
the state's swimming beaches.
For More Information
For information about the Alabama beach program
contact:
Suzi Farr, Alabama Department of Environmental
Management
Tel: 251-450-3400
e-mail: sfarr@adem.state.al.us
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/.
------- |