o\ EPA's BEACH Report: vvTy I North Carolina 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 North Carolina for 2010. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Division of Environmental Health administers the Recreational Water Quality Program, which monitors the coastal waters along North Carolina. The 320 miles of ocean coastline and 2.2 million acres of estuarine waters consisting of coastal rivers, bays, and sounds give residents and visitors many recreational areas for swimming and water play. North Carolina's coastal recreational waters are known for their pristine water quality; however, frequent monitoring is important to keep the public informed about any localized problems that may occur. The Recreational Water Quality Program monitors 241 sites along the coast and in 2010 collected 6,238 water samples for recreational waters, most of them on a weekly basis during the swimming season, April through October. North Carolina's ocean beaches rarely have swimming advisories and in 2010 only nine out of the 30 swimming areas under advisory was an ocean beach. The other 21 swimming areas were located on sounds and rivers where storm water or the lack of tidal exchange often contributes to poor water quality. Figure 1. North Carolina coastal counties. Currituck Camden \ Pasquotank\ \ Perquimans^X \ \ Chowan Bertie re sret New Hanove Brunswick Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county by 2010. County Total Beaches Monitored Not Monitored BEUFORT 11 11 0 BERTIE 1 1 0 BRUNSWICK 39 39 0 CAMDEN 2 2 0 CARTERET 53 53 0 CHOWAN 1 1 0 CRAVEN 8 8 0 CURRITUCK 9 9 0 DARE 57 57 0 HYDE 5 5 0 NEW HANOVER 21 21 0 ONSLOW 16 16 0 PAMLICO 9 9 0 PASQUOTANK 1 1 0 PENDER 6 6 0 PERQUIMANS 1 1 0 TYRRELL 1 1 0 TOTALS 241 241 0 ------- 2010 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? When water quality standards are exceeded at a particular beach, North Carolina issues a swimming advisory that warns people to avoid contact with the recreational water. A total of 30 monitored beaches had at least one advisory issued during the 2010 swimming season. About 38 percent of North Carolina's 45 notification actions lasted only one day. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification action durations. What percentage of days were beaches under a notification action? For North Carolina's 2010 swimming season, actions were reported 1.7 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 North Carolina's investigated monitored beaches possibly affected by various pollution sources. In 2010, 66 percent of the beaches identified storm-related runoff as a possible source of pollution. For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For more information concerning North Carolina's beaches, please visit: www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/shellfish/Water Monitoring/ RWOweb/home.htm Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 20 -i 15 - 10 - 18 5 I 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 240 241 241 Number of beaches affected by notification actions 19 24 30 Percentage of beaches affected by notification actions 8% 10% 12% Percentage of beach days affected by notification actions 0.3% 0.9% 1.7% Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by possible pollution sources (241 beaches). Investigated / no sources found Non-storm related runoff 2 Storm-related runoff Agricultural runoff o Boat discharge Cone, animal feeding operation o Combined sewer overflow o Sanitary sewer overflow 3 Publicly-owned treatment works 1 Sewer line leak or break o Septic system leakage 1 Wildlife 10 9 20 30 Percent of beaches 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 10 66 Note: A single beach may have multiple sources. Other (identified) source(s) 2 Unidentified source(s) 23 52 Beach days with no action 50,723 (98.3%) Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 851 (1.7%) ------- |