&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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