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EPA's BEACH Report:
Maryland 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 moni-
toring 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 notifi-
cation data submitted to EPA by the State of Maryland for
the 2007 swimming season.
Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)
works with local health departments and Maryland
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH)
Laboratory to enhance beach water quality monitoring
and improve the public notification process for beach
water quality in Maryland.
Water quality assessment begins prior to beach season
when local health departments collect water samples
from beaches and perform beach Pollution Source
Surveys to ensure that there are no nearby pollution
sources that may adversely impact water quality. MDE
has been working with local health departments to
utilize a recently developed technology-based data
collection system to conduct beach Pollution Source
Surveys. This system facilitates the collection of detailed
geo-referenced information, and improves data manage-
ment and analysis. This data system has provided MDE
and local health departments with a unique view on how
land based activities can impact water quality at beaches
and provides the information needed to quickly correct
or mitigate problems identified.
Local health departments collect water quality samples
from beaches before and during the beach season.
These samples are sent to the DHMH Laboratory for
analysis. Water quality results that exceed the criteria
are immediately reported to local health departments so
that beach managers can issue a notification if needed.
MDE assembles and submits the monitoring and notifi-
cation data to EPA.
In 2007, MDE launched a study to address questions
about indicator bacteria and pathogens found in beach
sand and water. This study is being conducted at select-
ed sites in Maryland and Delaware.
Figure 1. Maryland coastal counties.

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Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches
by county for 2007.
County
Total
Beaches
Monitored
Not
Monitored
ANNE
ARUNDEL
27
27
0
BALTIMORE
3
3
0
CALVERT
9
9
0
GECIL
6
6
0
KENT
8
8
0
QUEEN
ANNE'S
1
1
0
SOMERSET
2
2
0
ST MARY'S
2
2
0
WORCESTER
10
10
0
TOTALS
68
68
0
Baltimore
Anne
Arundel
Worcester
St. Mary'g1
Somerset

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2007 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
Maryland'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 20 monitored
beaches had at least one advisory issued during
the 2007 swimming season. The majority of the
notification action durations that are 3 to 7 days
or 8 to 30 days, shown in Figure 2, reflect the
timing between sampling events rather than risk
to swimmers or pollution. Figure 2 presents a full
breakdown of notification action durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Maryland'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?
There were no obvious pollution sources at any
Maryland beaches in 2007.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Maryland:
www.beaches911.org
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
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1 - 2 Days 3 - 7 Days 8-30 Days
Duration of Actions (days)
Figure 3: Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
248
(3.7%)
30 Days
Beach days
with no action
6,416
(96.3%)
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007.

2005
2006
2007
Number of monitored
beaches
73
81
68
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
3
18
20
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
4%
22%
29%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
2%
4%
4%
Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (68 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
Note: a single beach may
have multiple sources.
100

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