&EFA
    United States
    Environmental Protection
    Agency
              EPA's  BEACH  Report:
              Delaware 2011  Swimming Season
              August 2012
                       EPA820-F-12-018
  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 Delaware for the 2011 swimming season.


  2011 Swimming Season
  Monitoring and Notification
  Actions
  Delaware monitored 20 coastal beaches in Sussex
  County 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, Delaware officials 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.

  How many beaches had notification actions?
  In 2011 none of the 20 coastal beaches that
  Delaware monitored had notification actions. This
  is the lowest percentage in the past four years
  (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Delaware coastal counties.
Table 1. Number of monitored and
       unmonitored coastal beaches by
       county for 2011.
• County


SUSSEX
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
20
20
Monitored
20
20
Not
Monitored
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 2011
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Delaware issued no notification actions during the
2011 swimming season. Typically Delaware lifts
an action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.

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 calculated
that 2,982 beach days were associated with the
                                                        2011

                                                        2010

                                                        2009

                                                        2008

                                                        2007
             • To the Beach \
             • To the Beach)
             MTo the Beach)
100.0%

 98.3%

 96.4%

 99.6%

 99.6%
swimming seasons of the 20 monitored Delaware
beaches. Delaware reported notification actions
on 0 days, meaning that beaches were open
and safe for swimming 100 percent of the time.
This improves on the trend of consistently high
percentages of open beach days at state beaches
(Figure 4).


For More Information
For information about the Delaware beach program
contact:
Debbie Lee Rouse
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Control
Tel: 302-739-9939
e-mail: debbie.rouse@state.de.us
For general information about beaches visit:
http://water.epa.goy/type/oceb/beaches/.
For information about a specific beach visit:
http://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/.

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