&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Northern Mariana Islands
2011 Swimming Season
September 2012
EPA820-F-12-039
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
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
for the 2011 swimming season.
2011 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Northern Mariana Islands monitored 69 coastal
beaches on three islands 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,
Northern Mariana Islands officials issue a beach
advisory, warning people of possible risks of
swimming for the next 48 hours.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2011, all of the 69 coastal beaches that Northern
Mariana Islands monitored had at least one
notification action. This is the same as the previous
2 years (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Monitored Northern Mariana
Islands.
Saipan
Tinian
Rota
Table 1.
Island
ROTA
SAIPAN
TINIAN
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
11
53
5
69
Monitored
11
53
5
69
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
0
Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches
for 2011.
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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?
Northern Mariana Islands issued 410 2-day
notification actions during the 2011 swimming
season (Figure 3). The Division of Environmental
Quality is working to reduce the number of actions
at recreational beaches by supporting programs
to repair and improve sewage collection systems
and managing cattle grazing in areas that impact
beaches.
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)
• To the Beach >]
96.7%
96.2%
96.5%
98.2%
96.7%
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2011 EPA calculated
that 25,185 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the 69 monitored Northern
Mariana Islands beaches. Northern Mariana
Islands reported notification actions on 820 days,
meaning that beaches were open and safe for
swimming approximately 97 percent of the time.
This continues the trend of consistently high
percentages of open beach days (Figure 4).
For More Information
For information about the Northern Mariana
Islands beach program contact:
Clarissa Tanake Bearden
Department of Environmental Quality
Tel: 670-664-8520
e-mail: clarissabearden@deq.gov.mp
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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