&EFA
    United States
    Environmental Protection
    Agency
         EPA's  BEACH  Report:
         Alabama  2012  Swimming  Season
         September 2013
                 EPA 820-F-13-025
  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 Alabama for the 2012 swimming season.


  2012 Swimming Season
  Monitoring and Notification
  Actions
  Alabama monitored 25 beaches in two 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, Alabama officials issue a beach
  advisory warning people of possible risks of
  swimming.

  How many beaches had notification actions?
  In 2012, of the 25 coastal beaches that Alabama
  monitored, nine (36 percent) had at least one
  notification action. This is a increase over previous
  years, primarily due to several widespread storms
  hitting the coast during the swimming season
  (Figure  2).
 Figure 1. Alabama coastal counties
1 County



BALDWIN
MOBILE
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
21
4
25
Monitored
21
4
25
Not
Monitored
0
0
0
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
   Figure 3: Duration of beach notification
            actions in 2012
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Alabama issued 15 notification actions during the
2012 swimming season. Typically Alabama lifts an
action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
For 13 of the 15 actions (87 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
length of the beach season by the number of
   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)
beaches in the state. For 2012 EPA determined
that 3,825 beach days were associated with the
swimming seasons of the twenty-five monitored
Alabama beaches. Alabama reported notification
actions on 21 days, meaning that beaches were
open and safe for swimming about 99.5 percent
of the time. This continues the annual trend of
consistently high percentages of open beach days at
beaches in Alabama (Figure 4).


For  More Information
For information about the Alabama beach program
contact:
Suzi Rice, Alabama Department of Environmental
Management
Tel: 251-450-3415
e-mail: srice@adem.state.al.us
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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