EPA Office of Water, Washington, DC. BEACH Act Locational Data. Fact Sheet #EPA840-F-14-001, September 2014
Fact Sheet: BEACH Act Locational Data
States, Territories and Tribes
Covered by the BEACH Act of 2000
About the BEACH Act Program
The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) of 2000 requires coastal and Great
Lakes states and territories to report to EPA on beach monitoring, notification and geospatial data for their coastal
recreation waters. The BEACH Act defines coastal recreation waters as the Great Lakes and marine coastal waters
(including coastal estuaries) that states, territories, and authorized tribes (collectively referred to as "states" or
"jurisdictions") officially recognize or designate for swimming, bathing, surfing, or similar water contact
activities. The BEACH Act
Program focuses on the goals
of improving public health
and environmental protection
for beach goers and providing
the public with information
about the quality of their
beach water.
For more information on the
BEACH Act Program, visit
http://www2.epa.gov/beaches.
How EPA Collects
Beach Locational Data
EPA collects beach locational
data in two ways. EPA uses
the Program tracking, beach
Advisories, Water quality
standards, and Nutrients
(PRAWN) database to store
the beach advisory, notification and geospatial data submitted by states. EPA also uses the STOrage and
RETrieval (STORET) database to store the beach water quality monitoring and monitoring station location data
submitted by states. The geospatial data enable the public to accurately associate beach advisory, notification and
water quality monitoring data with their respective beaches using map viewing applications.
BEACH Act States and Territories
BEACH Act Tribes
fi-EPA
How EPA Indexes Beach
Locational Data
BEACH Act Locational Data Flow
•
RAD
Mapping
Applications
Upon collection, latitude and longitude data
for beaches and monitoring stations are PRAWN and
indexed to EPA's Reach Address Database SI 0 RET
(RAD), which stores the data for use by
mapping applications. The RAD uses the
National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) to provide a nationally normalized dataset. Moreover, the RAD
provides the beach and monitoring station locations within the NHDPlus surface water drainage network in a
manner similar to street addresses. Prior to releasing RAD indexed beach location data to the public, the data are
sent to the respective jurisdictions for review and approval.
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EPA Office of Water, Washington, DC. BEACH Act Locational Data. Fact Sheet #EPA840-F-14-001, September 2014
For More Information:
• More information on the procedures for collection and indexing locational data are available at:
http://www.epa.gov/sites/produdion/files/2014-09/documents/sop2014.pdf.
• More information about the RAD is available at: https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/reach-address-database-rad.
• More information about NHDPlus is available at: http://www.horizon-systems.com/nhdplus.
• Instructions for the locational data review process are available at:
http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-09/documents/beachreviewtool.pdf.
How to Access BEACH Act Locational Data
You can access beach locational data through BEACON and quarterly datasets
provided by EPA:
BEach Advisory and Closing Online Notification (BEACON). BEACON
(http://watersgeo.epa.gov/BEACON2) provides an online searchable map viewer
for accessing the most up-to-date beach locational data.
BEACH Act National Geospatial Dataset - Quarterly Snapshot. A quarterly
snapshot of the locational dataset is available in several downloadable formats at:
https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/waters-geospatial-data-downloads. The
geospatial dataset contains both active and historical beaches, and selected
PRAWN attributes.
Additional Ways to Access BEACH Act Data
BEACON. In addition to providing locational data, BEACON (http://watersgeo.epa.gov/BEACON2) offers
numerous customizable reports for PRAWN and STORET data for BEACH Act beaches.
Annual Swimming Season Statistics (1999-2012). Between 1999 and 2012, EPA published a national summary
report about the previous year's swimming season data. These reports are available at:
http://www.epa.gov/beach-tech/annual-swimming-season-statistics-1999-2012. To view data by Beach ID, select
an annual report, select a jurisdiction, open the raw data (XLS) file, and open the Attributes tab. The 2012 report is
the final annual beach report. You can find the most currently available swimming season statistics in BEACON.
STORET. Using a Project ID (aka Beach ID), raw water quality monitoring data can be
downloaded from STORET, http://www.epa.gov/storet/dbtop.html. A guide to configuring
beach reports can be found at:
http://www.epa.gov/storet/archive/Downloading STORET Data.pdf.
BEACH Act Program and Locational Data Contacts
For more information on the BEACH Program or BEACH Geospatial data set contact:
BEACH Program IT Lead: William Kramer, US EPA Office of Water. Phone: (202) 566-0385.
Email: kramer.bill@epa.gov.
PRAWN Database Support:
Chris Stevenson, CGI Federal. Phone: (337) 344-5429. Email: christopher.stevenson@cgifederal.com.
Beach Indexing and Review Support: Amy Wesley-Snider, RTI International. Phone (919) 316-3711. Email:
alwesley@rti.org.
RAD and Geospatial Datasets: Brad Cooper, Eastern Research Group, Inc. Phone: (703) 633-1685. Email:
Brad.Cooper@erg.com.
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