&EFA United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA's BEACH Report: Makah Tribe 2012 Swimming Season September 2013 EPA820-F-13-031 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 Makah Tribe for the 2012 swimming season. 2012 Swimming Season Monitoring and Notification Actions The Makah Tribe monitored six coastal beaches 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, Makah Tribe officials issue a beach advisory, warning people of possible risks of swimming. How many beaches had notification actions? In 2012, one of the five coastal beaches that the Makah Tribe monitored had a notification action (Figure 2). Figure 1. Makah Tribe Table 1. Number of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches for 2012 MAKAH Total Not Beaches Monitored Monitored 14 ------- Figure 2: Percent of beaches with one or more notification actions Figure 3: Duration of beach notification actions in 2012 8 days 100% How many notification actions were issued and how long did they last? The Makah Tribe issued one notification action during the 2012 swimming season. Typically the Makah Tribe lifts an action when follow-up monitoring indicates that water quality complies with applicable standards. The one action was eight days in duration (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 Figure 4: Percent of beach days open and safe for swimming 2012 2011 2010 2009 • To the Beach \ • To the Beach \ • To the Beach ) 99.9% 100% 99.9% 100% 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 1,655 beach days were associated with the swimming seasons of the six monitored Makah Tribe beaches. The Makah Tribe reported notification actions on eight days, meaning that beaches were open and safe for swimming virtually 100 percent of the time. This continues the trend of consistently high percentages of open beach days at Makah Tribe beaches (Figure 4). For More Information For information about the Makah Tribe beach program contact: Aaron Parker Makah Environmental Division Tel: 360-646-2049 e-mail: aaron.parker@makah.com 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/. ------- |