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EPA's BEACH Report:
Virginia 2007 Swimming Season
July 2008
Introduction
The BEACH Act of 2000 requires that coastal
and Great Lakes states and territories report
to EPA on beach monitoring and notification
data for their coastal recreation waters.
The BEACH Act defines coastal recreation
waters as the Great Lakes and coastal waters
(including coastal estuaries) that states,
territories, and authorized tribes officially
recognize or designate for swimming,
bathing, surfing, or similar activities in the
water.
This fact sheet summarizes beach monitoring
and notification data submitted to EPA by
the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 2007
swimming season.
Figure 1. Virginia coastal counties.
/
Mathews
Gloucester
York
Newport
News
Hampton
Norfo Ik
Accomack
Northampton
Virginia
Beach
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2007.
Total	Not
County	Beaches Monitored Monitored
ACCOMACK
2
2
0
GLOUCESTER
1
1
0
HAMPTON
2
2
0
KING GEORGE
1
1
0
MATHEWS
1
1
0
NEWPORT NEWS
4
4
0
NORFOLK
9
9
0
NORTHAMPTON
2
2
0
VIRGINIA BEACH
24
24
0
YORK
1
1
0
TOTALS
47
47
0

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2007 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
Virginia's approach is to issue a beach advisory
when water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach that warns people to avoid contact
with the ocean water. A total of 8 monitored beaches
had at least one advisory issued during the 2007
swimming season. About 36 percent of Virginia's
notification actions lasted two days or less. Figure
2 presents a full breakdown of notification action
durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Virginia's 2007 swimming season, actions were
reported about 1 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2007 results compare to previous years?
Table 2 compares 2007 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources impact monitored
beaches?
Sources of pollution impacting Virginia's monitored
beaches were not identified in 2007 (Figure 4).
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Virginia:
www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/DZEE/
BeachMonitoring/
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
1 - 2 Days 3 - 7 Days 8 - 30 Days
Duration of Actions (days)
> 30 Days
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007.

2005
2006
2007
Number of monitored
beaches
49
47
47
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
8
4
8
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
16%
9%
17%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
1%
1%
1%
Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (47 beaches).
0
Pollution sources not investigated
Agricultural runoff
Boat discharge
Cone, animal feeding operation
Publicly-owned treatment works
Non-storm related runoff
Septic system leakage
Sewer line leak or break
Sanitary/Combined sewer overflow
Storm-related runoff
Wildlife
Other and/or unidentified sources
No known pollution sources
Percent of beaches
1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00
Note: a single beach may
have multiple sources.
100
Beach days
with no action
7,128
(99%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
63
(1%)

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