EPA's BEACH Report: ~ir*m| ¦ Michigan 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 Michigan for the 2007 swimming season. Figure 1. Michigan coastal counties. Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2007. County Total Beaches Monitored Not Monitored ALCONA 17 1 16 ALGER 25 0 25 ALLEGAN 11 5 6 ALPENA 23 5 18 ANTRIM 28 5 23 ARENAC 32 8 24 BARAGA 24 1 23 BAY 10 5 5 BENZIE 14 1 13 BERRIEN 33 13 20 CHARLEVOIX 19 13 6 CHEBOYGAN 24 4 20 CHIPPEWA 37 6 31 DELTA 55 2 53 EMMET 34 11 23 GOGEBIC 10 1 9 GRAND TRAVERSE 44 5 39 HOUGHTON 24 7 17 HURON 41 12 29 IOSCO 24 8 16 KEWEENAW 28 1 27 LEELANAU 66 3 63 LUCE 17 0 17 MACKINAC 63 2 61 MACOMB 13 4 9 MANISTEE 18 9 9 MARQUETTE 9 5 4 MASON 19 7 12 MENOMINEE 11 2 9 MONROE 13 4 9 MUSKEGON 19 12 7 OCEANA 16 6 10 ONTONAGON 19 2 17 OTTAWA 15 9 6 PRESQUE ISLE 37 4 33 SANILAC 23 4 19 SCHOOLCRAFT 15 1 14 ST. CLAIR 25 14 11 VAN BUREN 8 4 4 WAYNE 7 2 5 TOTALS 970 208 762 Houghfc Chippewa Marquetti icjolcraft isboygan Menominee Antrim Icona Arenac Macomb Berrien Charlevoi „q. Leelanau Benzi< Manistei Mason Oceana Muskegon Ottawa Allegan Van Burei ------- 2007 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? Michigan'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 water. A total of 32 monitored beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2007 swimming season. About 63 percent of Michigan's 48 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 Michigan's 2007 swimming season, actions were reported about 3 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? There are no known sources of pollution for most of Michigan's monitored beaches (Figure 4). For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For information about beaches in Michigan: www.deq.state.mi.us/beach/public/ default.aspx Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 35 - 30 - m I 25 " o 20 - < 0 15 1 10 1 30 10 4 4 : i 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 214 211 208 Number of beaches affected by notification actions 27 42 32 Percentage of beaches affected by notification actions 13% 20% 15% Percentage of beach days affected by notification actions 2% 2% 3% Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (208 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 0 1 < 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 ] < 1 ] 1 l<1 I 14 Note: a single beach may have multiple sources. I 85 Beach days with no action __ 18,644 (97.3%) Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 526 (2.7%) ------- |