&EFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA's BEACH Report:
Louisiana 2012 Swimming Season
September 2013
EPA820-F-13-029
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 Louisiana for the 2012 swimming season.
2012 Swimming Season
Monitoring and Notification
Actions
Louisiana reports 30 coastal beaches located
in six parishes (Figure 1). Louisiana monitored
25 of these beaches during the 2012 swimming
season (Table 1). When monitoring results at
swimming beaches show that levels of specific
indicator bacteria in the water exceed applicable
water quality standards, Louisiana 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 25 coastal beaches that Louisiana
monitored, 21 (84 percent) had at least one
notification action (Figure 2). Hurricane Isaac,
which made landfall on August 28, 2012, caused
extended closures of beaches in Jefferson and
St. Tammany Parishes. Jefferson Parish's eight
monitored beaches reopened after 24 days and
St. Tammany's lone monitored beach reopened
after 65 days.
Figure 1. Louisiana coastal parishes
St. Tammany
Jefferson
Parish
CALCASIEU
CAMERON
JEFFERSON
LAFOURCHE
ST. MARY
ST. TAMMANY
TOTALS
Total
Beaches
2
13
9
4
1
1
30
Monitored
2
12
8
1
1
1
25
Not
Monitored
0
1
1
3
0
0
5
Table 1. Number of monitored and unmonitored
coastal beaches by parish for 2012
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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
Over 30 days
10%
How many notification actions were issued and
how long did they last?
Louisiana issued 52 notification actions during the
2012 swimming season. Typically Louisiana lifts
an action when follow-up monitoring indicates that
water quality complies with applicable standards.
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
beaches in the state. For 2012 EPA calculated
that 4,392 beach days were associated with the
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
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84.3%
44.9%
44.7%
47.4%
33.6%
swimming seasons of the 25 monitored Louisiana
beaches. Louisiana reported notification actions
on 688 days, meaning that beaches were open and
safe for swimming about 84 percent of the time.
(Figure 4). This increase in open days indicates
that Louisiana beaches are overcoming the impacts
from previous hurricanes and the 2010 explosion of
the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling
platform.
For More Information
For information about the Louisiana beach
program contact:
Chris Lemaire
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
Tel: 225-342-7540
e-mail: chris.lemaire@la.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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