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EPA's BEACH Report:
Alabama 2010 Swimming Season
May 2011
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 State of Alabama for the 2010 swimming
season.
Notification actions directly attributable to
the oil spill that resulted from the April 20,
2010 explosion on the BP leasee! Deepwater
Horizon offshore drilling platform are not
included in the summary statistics presented
in this report. A total of 538 beach days
at 10 monitored beaches had oil-related
notification actions during the 2010 swimming
season.
Figure 1. Alabama coastal counties.
Baldwin
Mobile
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored arid
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2010.
County
Total
Beaches
Monitored
Not
Monitored
BALDWIN
21
21
0
MOBILE
4
4
0
TOTALS
25
25
0

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2010 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach, Alabama issues a beach advisory
that warns people to avoid contact with the ocean
water. A total of 3 monitored beaches had at least
one advisory issued during the 2010 swimming
season. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of
notification action durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Alabama's 2010 swimming season, actions were
reported about 0.1 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2010 results compare to previous years?
Table 2 compares 2010 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources possibly affect
investigated monitored beaches?
There were no known sources of pollution affecting
Alabama's investigated monitored beaches in 2010
(Figure 4).
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Alabama:
www.adem.alabama.gov/programs/coastal/
beachMonitoring.cnt
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.

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14-|
12
10-
5
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2	3-7	8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2008-2010.

2008
2009
2010
Number of monitored
beaches
25
25
25
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
4
5
3
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
16%
20%
12%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
0.2%
0.3%
0.1%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (25 beaches).
Percent of beaches
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Investigated I no sources found	100
Non-storm related runoff	o
Storm-related runoff	o
Agricultural runoff	o
Boat discharge	o
Cone, animal feeding operation	o
Combined sewer overflow	o
Sanitary sewer overflow	o
Publicly-owned treatment works	o
Sewer line leak or break	o
Septic system leakage	o
Wildlife	o
Other (identified) source(s)	o
Unidentified source(s)	o
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
Beach days
with no action
3,820
(99.9%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days with
an action:
5
(0.1%)

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