&EFA United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA's BEACH Report: Texas 2011 Swimming Season August 2012 EPA820-F-12-027 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 Texas for the 2011 swimming season. 2011 Swimming Season Monitoring and Notification Actions Texas monitored 66 coastal beaches in ten 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, Texas officials issue a beach advisory, warning people of possible risks of swimming. How many beaches had notification actions? In 2011, of the 66 coastal beaches that Texas monitored, 55 (83 percent) had at least one notification action. This is approximately the same as in previous years (Figure 2). Figure 1. Texas coastal counties. Refugio San Patricio Nuece Jefferson Galveston Table 1. Number of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2011. County ARANSAS BRAZORIA CALHOUN CAMERON CHAMBERS GALVESTON HARRIS JEFFERSON KLEBERG MATAGORDA NUECES REFUGIO SAN PATRICIO WILLACY TOTALS Total Beaches 9 10 18 12 2 36 8 2 7 12 43 1 6 3 169 Monitored 1 4 0 9 0 23 1 2 4 3 18 0 1 0 66 Not Monitored 8 6 18 3 2 13 7 0 3 9 25 1 5 3 103 ------- 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 3-7 days 2% 8-30 days 1% 1-2 days 97% How many notification actions were issued and how long did they last? Texas issued 235 notification actions during the 2011 swimming season. Typically Texas lifts an action when follow-up monitoring indicates that water quality complies with applicable standards. For the majority of actions (97 percent) water quality returned to normal and beaches were deemed safe for swimming within one or two days (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 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 • To the Beach \ • To the Beach • To the Beach } • To the Beach) 98.8% 98.5% 99.0% 98.1% 95.0% 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 23,598 beach days were associated with the swimming seasons of the 66 monitored Texas beaches. Texas reported notification actions on 283 days, meaning that beaches were open and safe for swimming about 99 percent of the time. This continues the trend of consistently high percentages of open beach days at state swimming beaches (Figure 4). For More Information For information about the Texas beach program contact: Craig Davis General Land Office Tel: 512-463-8126 e-mail: Craig.Davis@glo.state.tx.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/. ------- |