&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Hawaii 2011 Swimming Season
August 2012
EPA820-F-12-032
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 Hawaii for the 2011 swimming season.
2011 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Hawaii monitored 130 coastal beaches in four
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, Hawaii officials issue
a beach advisory, warning people of possible
risks of swimming. In some cases, advisories are
issued preemptively (i.e., without having actual
bacteria monitoring results) due to storms or other
conditions that might affect swimmer safety.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2011, all of the 130 coastal beaches that Hawaii
monitored had island-wide preemptive notification
actions due to rainfall (Figure 2). Island-wide
preemptive actions also occurred in 2009 resulting
in 100 percent of the state's beaches with one or
more notification actions.
How many notification actions were issued and
Figure 1. Hawaii coastal counties.
Table 1. Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2011.
County
HAWAII
HONOLULU
KAUAI
MAUI
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
83
115
64
127
389
Monitored
35
22
23
50
130
Not
Monitored
48
93
41
77
259
-------
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
1-2 days
10%
3-7 days
55%
how long did they last?
Hawaii issued 269 notification actions during the
2011 swimming season. Typically Hawaii lifts an
action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
For the majority of actions (65 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
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
MTo the Beach \
96.4%
99.8%
98.7%
99.9%
99.7%
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2011 EPA calculated
that 47,450 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the 130 monitored Hawaii
beaches. Hawaii reported notification actions on
1,717 days, meaning that beaches were open and
safe for swimming about 96 percent of the time.
This continues the trend of consistently high
percentages of open beach days at state beaches
(Figure 4).
For More Information
For information about the Hawaii beach program
contact:
Dale Mikami
Department of Health
Tel: 808-586-4331
e-mail: Clinton.mikami@doh.hawaii.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/.
------- |