I o\ EPA's BEACH Report:
Pennsylvania 2010 Swimming Season
May 2011
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
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the 2010
swimming season.
Figure 1. Pennsylvania coastal counties.
Erie
E
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2010.

Total

Not
County
Beaches
Monitored
Monitored
ERIE
13
13
0
TOTALS
13
13
0

-------
2010 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported and
how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a par-
ticular beach, Pennsylvania issues a beach advisory
that warns people to avoid contact with the water. A
total of 9 monitored beaches had at least one advi-
sory issued during the 2010 swimming season. All of
Pennsylvania's 14 notification actions lasted one day.
Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification ac-
tion durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For Pennsylvania's 2010 swimming season, actions
were reported about 1 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2010 results compare to previous years?
Table 2 compares 2010 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources possibly affect
investigated monitored beaches?
Figure 4 displays the percentage of Pennsylvania's
investigated monitored beaches possibly affected
by various pollution sources. In 2010, storm-related
runoff was identified as a possible source at all 13 of
investigated beaches in 2010.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information regarding sample results for all
permitted bathing beaches contact the Erie County
Department of Health at (814) 451-6700 or on the
Web at www.ecdh.org
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
15-1
2 10-
o
<
o
o
2	3-7 8-30
Duration of Actions (Days)
>30
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2008-2010.

2008
2009
2010
Number of monitored
beaches
12
13
13
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
11
11
9
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
92%
85%
69%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
11%
3%
1%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (13 beaches).
Percent of beaches
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00
Investigated / no sources found	o
Non-storm related runoff	o
Storm-related runoff	100
Agricultural runoff	o
Boat discharge	o
Cone, animal feeding operation	o
Combined sewer overflow	o
Sanitary sewer overflow	o
Publicly-owned treatment works	o
Sewer line leak or break	o
Septic system leakage	o
Wildlife	o
Other (identified) source(s)	o
Unidentified source(s)	o
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
Beach days
with no action
— 1,273
(98.9%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
14
(1.1%)

-------