1a\ EPA's BEACH Report: Hawaii 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 Hawaii for the 2007 swimming season. Under the BEACH Act, almost all of Hawaii's coastal waters are considered "beaches." A beach can be a cliff, rocky shoreline, or a sandy stretch of coastline. As long as the water along the coastline is used for full contact water recreation, it is considered a beach. Hawaii's monitoring program focuses on intensity of use, as the guide in the selection of beaches to be monitored and the frequency of sampling. Hawaii's 444 beaches represents about 297 miles of coastline, of which 91 miles are monitored. On Oahu, where most of the State's population resides, 144 beaches represents about 125 miles of coastline, of which 55 miles are monitored. Figure 1. Hawaii coastal counties. Kauai Honoiuiu Maui Hawaii Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2007. County Total Beaches Monitored Not Monitored HAWAII 104 22 82 HONOLULU 144 65 79 KAUAI 73 17 56 MAUI 123 11 112 TOTALS 444 115 329 ------- 2007 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? Hawaii'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. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification action durations. A total of 7 beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2007 swimming season. About 25 percent of Hawaii's notification actions lasted two days or less. What percentage of days were beaches under a notification action? For Hawaii's 2007 swimming season, actions were reported less than 1 percent of the time (Figure 3). Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 5 1 . 1 1 ¦ 1 - 2 Days 3 - 7 Days 8-30 Days > 30 Days Duration of Actions (days) 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 Hawaii's monitored beaches potentially impacted by various pollution sources. In 2007, 100 percent of the beaches included storm-related runoff as a known Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007. potential For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For information about beaches in Hawaii: www.hawaii.gov/health/environmental/water/ cleanwater/index.html Number of monitored beaches 134 112 115 Number of beaches affected by notification actions 13 16 8 Percentage of beaches affected by notification actions 10% 14% 7% Percentage of beach days affected by notification actions <1% 1% <1% Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (115 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 0 0 0 0 P 3 0 1 0 ~ 10 (Note: a single beach may have multiple sources.) 0 P3 0 100 Beach days with no action 41,859 (>99%) Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 116 (<1%) ------- |