^tDsrx I A i vSki \ -1 PR©^ 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 ------- 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. > C o +¦» o < o o 14-| 12 10- 5 1 T "T" 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%) ------- |