&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Virginia 2012 Swimming Season
September 2013
EPA820-F-13-048
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 Virginia for the 2012 swimming
season.
2012 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Virginia monitored 46 coastal beaches in
10 counties 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, Virginia officials issue a
beach advisory, warning people of possible risks of
swimming.
How many beaches had notification actions?
In 2012, of the 46 coastal beaches that Virginia
monitored, 17 (37 percent) had at least one
notification action. This is approximately the same
as previous years (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Virginia coastal counties.
Mat hews
Gloucester
York
Newport
\ccomack
Northampton
irginia
each
Table 1. Number of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2012
County
ACCOMACK
GLOUCESTER
HAMPTON
KING GEORGE
MATHEWS
NEWPORT NEWS
NORFOLK
NORTHHAMPTON
VIRGINIA BEACH
YORK
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
1
1
3
1
1
4
10
2
22
1
46
Monitored
1
1
3
1
1
4
10
2
22
1
46
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
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 2012
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Virginia issued 23 notification actions during the
2012 swimming season. Typically Virginia lifts an
action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
For the majority of actions (96 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
beach days are determined by multiplying the
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
• To the Beach);
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
• To the Beach)
length of the beach season by the number of
beaches in the state. For 2012 EPA calculated
that 6,900 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the 46 monitored Virginia
beaches. Virginia reported notification actions
on 29 days, meaning that beaches were open and
safe for swimming over 99 percent of the time.
This continues the trend of consistently high
percentages of open beach days at beaches in
Virginia (Figure 4).
For More Information
For information about the Virginia beach program
contact:
Matthew Skiljo
Virginia Department of Health
Tel: 804-864-8182
e-mail: matthew.skiljo@vdh.virginia.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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