o\ EPA's BEACH Report: vvTy I Oregon 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 State of Oregon for the 2010 swimming season. Between May and September each year, the Oregon Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) helps protect people who play in coastal waters that are designated for swimming, bathing, surfing and similar water contact activities. During the 2010 swimming season, the OBMP monitored 81 sampling sites at 26 recreational beaches along the Oregon coast. Ocean water is sampled either once a week or every two weeks. The beach program works with other state agencies to collect and test water samples, and when bacteria levels exceed the state standard of 158 enterococci organisms per lOOmL of ocean water sampled, a water contact advisory is issued. Oregon uses various methods to notify the public about water contact advisories, including media releases, phone calls to city and county officials, email notification to local governments and interested stakeholders, statewide advisory hotline, signage at beach access points, and posting information on the program website at www.healthoregon.org/beach. Figure 1. Oregon coastal counties. Clatsop Tillamook Lincoln Lane Coosi Douglas Cu Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2010. County Total Beaches Monitored Not Monitored CLATSOP 9 5 4 COOS 8 3 5 CURRY 25 6 9 DOUGLAS 1 1 0 LANE 11 1 10 LINCOLN 24 4 20 TILLAMOOK 13 6 7 TOTALS 91 26 65 The OBMP works with the Oregon Coastal Atlas to share and display beach water quality monitoring data on the Web. The Atlas is a collaborative project of the Oregon Ocean-Coastal Management Program, and is considered one of the nation's most useful and comprehensive information sources about a state shoreline. To view recent and historic beach sampling data at the Atlas, visit www.coastalatlas .net/learn/ topics/waterquality/beach. ------- 2010 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? When water quality standards are exceeded at a particular beach, Oregon issues a beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact with the ocean water. A total of eight monitored beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2010 swimming season. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification action durations. What percentage of days were beaches under a notification action? For Oregon's 2010 swimming season, actions were reported about three 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 Oregon's investigated monitored beaches possibly affected by various pollution sources. For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For information on Oregon's monitored beaches and sampling results visit www.healthoregon.org/beach. or contact (971) 673-0431. Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 2 3-7 8-30 > 30 Duration of Actions (days) Figure 3: Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2008-2010. 2008 2009 2010 Number of monitored beaches 26 24 26 Number of beaches affected by notification actions 10 4 8 Percentage of beaches affected by notification actions 38% 17% 31% Percentage of beach days affected by notification actions 2% 2% 3% Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by possible pollution sources (6 beaches). Percent of beaches 0 1 0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00 Investigated / no sources found Non-storm related runoff Storm-related runoff Agricultural runoff Boat discharge Cone, animal feeding operation Combined sewer overflow Sanitary sewer overflow Publicly-owned treatment works Sewer line leak or break Septic system leakage Wildlife Other (identified) source(s) Unidentified source(s) 0 33 0 0 0 0 1 7 Note: A single beach may have multiple sources. 33 0 0 0 83 0 0 Beach days with no action 2,375 (97.2%) Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 69 (2.8%) ------- |