x>EPA
                      United States
                      Environmental Protection
                      Agency
    Office of Water  EPA - 820-F-12-051
                                                    4305T
                     October  2012
                Interactive National List of Beaches
Summary
EPA has published online our first interactive
National List of Beaches. The interactive list
provides the public with the most current
information about the extent and condition of
coastal and Great Lakes beaches as reported to
EPA by each coastal or Great Lakes state, tribe,
and territory in the U.S.

Background
The Beaches Environmental Assessment and
Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000 requires
that EPA periodically publish a list of U.S.
coastal and Great Lakes recreational waters
adjacent to beaches that are used by the public.
The Agency must also identify whether state and
local governments are implementing water
quality monitoring and public notification
programs at the beaches.

In accordance with the BEACH Act, EPA
generates the National List of Beaches based on
data from states, tribes and territories. Inland
beaches other than those on the Great Lakes are
not covered by the BEACH Act, and therefore
are not included in the National List.

The National List is primarily organized by state
and county. However, for Hawaii and some
territories, the beaches are listed by island, and
Alaska's beaches are reported by community.
Beach names are listed with their monitoring
status for each swimming season.

The New List
Beginning with the 2011 beach season, the
public can now access EPA's National List of
Beaches using a dynamic and interactive online
tool. For beaches covered by the BEACH Act,
users can find information on the length of
beaches, the most recent beach closures and
advisories, and water quality monitoring data
reported by states, territories, or tribes.
This dynamic version generates reports that are
formatted like previous National Lists, but uses
the most current information. This ability
eliminates the need for EPA to generate annual
Lists in the future. From the new online tool,
users will also be able  to access state websites
for additional information.

Previous Lists
EPA first published the National List in 2004,
and provided updates for the 2008 and 2010
beach seasons. These static lists are available on
EPA's website at:
http://water.epa.gov/tvpe/oceb/beaches/list inde
x.cfm.

Differences in Results
There will be some differences between reports
generated using the interactive National List and
the static lists generated using previous years'
data (2004, 2008, and 2010):

1) The number of beaches in past reports will
not match the number of beaches in the dynamic
list. Changes to beaches are frequently made by
local jurisdictions, such as combining several
beaches into a single beach, splitting a single
beach into multiple beaches, or adding or
removing beaches from the list. The dynamic list
reflects those changes as they are reported to
EPA.

2) Users will not be able to duplicate the exact
contents of previous reports, since the data from
2004, 2008, and 2010 used to create those
reports has since been  updated, reflecting the
addition of late or corrected data.
For More Information
For more information on the National List of
Beaches, please contact Richard Healy (202-
566-0405 or healy.richard@epa.gov).

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For general information about beaches go to:
http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/beaches/

For information about a specific beach go to:
http://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/.

To find your EPA Regional or state beach
program representative go to:
water.epa.gov/tvpe/oceb/beaches/whereyoulive
state, cfm.

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