EPA's BEACH Report:
£ New Jersey 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 New Jersey for the 2010 swimming
season.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) has been monitoring coastal
recreational bathing beaches since 1974 with
the participation of local environmental health
agencies. Water quality samples are collected
once a week at 219 ocean and bay beaches and
analyzed for enterococci bacteria.
In addition to water quality monitoring, DEP's
Water Monitoring and Standards Bureau of
Marine Water Monitoring performs aerial
surveillance of nearshore coastal waters. These
surveillance flights enable the evaluation of
coastal water quality and the assessment of the
nature and extent of public reports of ocean
pollution. Surveillance flights continue to
record a decrease in the quantity of floatable
trash and debris in the coastal waterways
compared to the years prior to 1990.
Updated beach conditions and water quality
results are posted each day from Memorial Day
through Labor Day on the DEP website
(www.njbeaches.org) and on the phone at
1-800-648-SAND.
Figure 1. New Jersey coastal counties.
Monmouth
Ocean
Atlantic
Cape May
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2010.
County
Total
Beaches
Monitored
Not
Monitored
ATLANTIC
37
37
0
CAPE MAY
69
69
0
MONMOUTH
50
50
0
OCEAN
63
63
0
TOTALS
219
219
0

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2010 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported and
how long were they?
When bacteria results exceed the standard of 104
enterococci per 100 mL of sample, New Jersey
resamples to confirm the result. If a second sample
exceeds the standard, the beach is closed until
additional monitoring shows that bacteria levels are
again within the standard. Sample results are posted
on the DEP website. A total of 27 monitored beaches
had at least one notification action issued during the
2010 swimming season. All but five of New Jersey's
104 notification actions lasted one day or less. Figure
2 presents a full breakdown of notification action
durations.
What percentage of days were beaches under a
notification action?
For New Jersey's 2010 swimming season, actions were
reported about 0.5 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 impact
investigated monitored beaches?
In 2010, New Jersey reports that no sources were
found at 72 percent of investigated beaches.
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in
New Jersey:
www.njbeaches.org or 1-800-648-SAND
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches
affected by possible pollution sources (217 beaches).
Percent of beaches
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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)
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
120 i
"T"
"T"
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
260
241
219
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
14
18
27
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
5%
7%
12%
Percentage of beach days
affected by notification
actions
0.3%
0.6%
0.5%
1
o
o
0
0
0
0
1
0
27
72
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
Beach days
with no action
22,010
(99.5%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
109
(0.5%)

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