&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Indiana 2012 Swimming Season
September 2013
EPA820-F-13-030
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 Indiana for the 2012 swimming season.
2012 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Indiana reports 25 beaches located in three
counties. Indiana monitored 24 of these beaches
during the 2012 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, Indiana 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 2012, of the 24 coastal beaches that Indiana
monitored 21 (88 percent) had at least one
notification action (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Indiana coastal counties
La Porte
County
LA PORTE
LAKE
PORTER
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
8
10
7
25
Monitored
8
10
6
24
Not
Monitored
0
0
1
1
Table 1. Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2012
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Figure 2: Percent of beaches with one or
more notification actions
II
Figure 3: Duration of beach notification
actions in 2012
8-30 days
1%
1-2 days
79%
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Indiana issued 169 notification actions during the
2012 swimming season. Typically Indiana lifts an
action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
For the majority of actions (79 percent) water
quality returned to normal and beaches were
deemed safe for swimming within one or two days
(Figure 3). Only rarely (one percent) did notification
actions last more than a week.
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
Figure 4: Percent of beach days open
and safe for swimming
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
• To the Beach)
|§To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
To the Beach)
87.0%
85.4%
82.5%
85.2%
84.8%
beach days are determined by multiplying the
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2012 EPA calculated
that 2,454 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the 24 monitored Indiana
beaches. Indiana reported notification actions on
318 days, meaning that beaches were open and
safe for swimming 87 percent of the time. This
percentage is similar to previous years (Figure 4).
For More Information
For information about the Indiana beach program
contact:
Michelle Caldwell
Indiana Department of Environmental
Management
Tel: 219-757-0283
e-mail: mcaldwel@idem.in.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/.
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