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EPA's BEACH Report:
Oregon 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 State of
Oregon for the 2007 swimming season.
Between May and September each year, the Oregon
Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) helps protect
people who play in coastal waters that are designated
for swimming, bathing, surfing, and similar water
contact activities.
During the 2007 swimming season, the OBMP
monitored 71 sampling sites at 20 recreational beaches
along the Oregon coast. Ocean water is sampled either
once a week or every two weeks. The beach program
works with other state agencies to collect and test water
samples, and when bacteria levels exceed the state
standard of 158 enterococci organisms per lOOmL of
ocean water sampled a water contact advisory is issued.
Oregon uses various methods for notifying the public
about water contact advisories, including media
releases, phone calls to city and county officials,
email notification to local governments and interested
stakeholders, statewide advisory hotline, signage
at beach access points, posting information on the
program Web site, and a Web site link to the Earth911
Web site where advisory information is also posted.
The OBMP works with the Oregon Coastal Atlas
to share and display beach water quality monitoring
data on the Web. The Atlas is a collaborative project
of the Oregon Ocean-Coastal Management Program,
and is considered one of the Nation's most useful and
comprehensive information sources about a State
shoreline. To view recent and historic beach sampling
data at the Atlas, visit www.coastalatlas.net/learn/
topics/waterquality/beach.
Figure 1. Oregon coastal counties.
Clatsop
Tillamook
Lincoln
Coos
Douglas
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2007.
County
Total
Beaches
Monitored
Not
Monitored
CLATSOP
7
3
4
COOS
3
2
1
CURRY
13
3
10
DOUGLAS
1
0
1
LANE
4
0
4
LINCOLN
18
6
12
TILLAMOOK
13
6
7
TOTALS
59
20
39

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2007 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
Oregon'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 14 monitored beaches had at
least one advisory issued during the 2007 swimming
season. About 67 percent of Oregon's 30 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 Oregon's 2007 swimming season, actions were
reported about 4 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?
Potential sources of pollution impacting Oregon's
monitored beaches were not investigated in 2007
(Figure 4).
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information on Oregon's monitored beaches and
sampling results visit
www.healthoregon.org/beach, or
contact (971) 673-0431.
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.

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20-
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15-
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10-
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20
1-2	3-7	8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
> 30
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007.

2005
2006
2007
Number of monitored
beaches
20
20
20
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
11
8
14
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
55%
40%
70%
Percentage of beach days
affected by notification
actions
4%
1%
4%
Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (20 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
10 20
30
Percent of beaches
40 50 60 70
80 90
100
~100
Note: a single beach may
have multiple sources.
Beach days
with no action
2,338
	 (95.8%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
102
(4.2%)

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