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EPA's BEACH Report:
North Carolina 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 North Carolina for the 2007.
The North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources' Division
of Environmental Health administers the
Recreational Water Quality Program, which
monitors the coastal waters along North
Carolina. The 320 miles of ocean coastline
and 2.2 million acres of estuarine waters
consisting of coastal rivers, bays and sounds
give residents and visitors many recreational
areas for swimming and water play.
North Carolina's coastal recreational waters
are known for its pristine water quality;
however, frequent monitoring is important to
keep the public informed about any localized
problems that may occur. The Recreational
Water Quality Program monitors 243 sites
along the coast and in 2007 collected 5,885
water samples for recreational waters,
most of them on a weekly basis during the
swimming season, April through October.
North Carolina's ocean beaches rarely have
swimming advisories and in 2007 only 1 out
of the 13 beaches under advisory was an ocean
beach. The other 12 swimming areas were
located on sounds and rivers where the lack of
tidal action and circulation often contribute to
poor water quality.
Figure 1. North Carolina coastal counties.
Camden
Pasquotank
Perquimans
urrituck
Bertie^-i
Beaufort
Craven ""
Onslow
Pender
1
New Hano
Brunswick
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county by 2007.
County
Total
Beaches
Monitored
Not
Monitored
BEUFORT
12
12
0
BERTIE
1
1
0
BRUNSWICK
30
30
0
CAMDEN
2
2
0
CARTERET
53
53
0
CHOWAN
1
1
0
CRAVEN
8
8
0
CURRITUCK
9
9
0
DARE
57
57
0
HYDE
5
5
0
NEW
HANOVER
22
22
0
ONSLOW
21
21
0
PAMLICO
10
10
0
PASQUOTANK
1
1
0
PENDER
9
9
0
PERQUIMANS
1
1
0
TYRRELL
1
1
0
TOTALS
243
243
0

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2007 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported and
how long were they?
North Carolina'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 13 monitored
beaches had at least one advisory issued during the
2007 swimming season. About 68 percent of North
Carolina's 22 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 North Carolina's 2007 swimming season, actions
were reported less than 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?
Figure 4 displays the percentage of North Carolina's
monitored beaches potentially impacted by various
pollution sources. In 2007, 73 percent of the beaches
identified storm related runoff as a known potential
source of pollution.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For more information concerning North Carolina's
beaches, please visit:
www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/shellfish/
Water_Monitoring/RWQweb/home.htm.
Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (243 beaches).
Percent of beaches
0 1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00
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
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
1 - 2 Days 3 - 7 Days 8-30 Days > 30 Days
Duration of Actions (days)
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007.

2005
2006
2007
Number of monitored
beaches
247
243
243
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
11
20
13
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
4%
8%
5%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
0.4%
0.9%
0.4%
0
0
0
11
~	3
11
0
~	3
~ 12








Note: a single beach may
have multiple sources.















-









11

19



Beach days
with no action
51,809
(99.6%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
193
(0.4%)

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