q EPA's BEACH Report:
Alaska 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 Alaska for the 2007 swimming season.
Figure 1. Alaska coastal communities.
£>	Juneau
Dillingham
Naknek
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
community for 2007.
Community
Total
Beaches Monitored
Not
Monitored
NAKNEK
1 1
0
DILLINGHAM
1 1
0
JUNEAU
1 1
G
TOTALS
3 3
0

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2007 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
Alaska'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. None of the 3 monitored beaches had an
advisory issued during the 2007 swimming season.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
No actions were reported during Alaska's 2007
swimming season (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 Alaska's
monitored beaches potentially impacted by various
pollution sources. In 2007, 2 out of 3 of their beaches
reported no known sources of pollution.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Alaska:
www.dec.state.ak.us/water/wqsar/wqs/
beachprogram.htm
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
10 -
9 -
8 -
g 7-
° 6 -
3 5-
o 4-
o 3 -
Z 2 -
1" 0	0	0	0
0 -I	1	1	1	1
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
Number of beaches
affected by notification	2	0	0
actions
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification 100%	o%	o%
actions
Percentage of beach
days affected by	39%	o%	o%
notification actions
Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (3 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
Percent of beaches
1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00
Note: a single beach may
have multiple sources.
~ 33
~ 33
~ 6
Beach days
with an action
Beach days
with no action
270
(100%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.

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