^tDsrx I Q % I®/ V pro'^ EPA's BEACH Report: Connecticut 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 Connecticut for the 2007 swimming season. The Connecticut Department of Public Health collects monitored beach data for 66 marine beaches located along its shoreline with Long Island Sound. Local health departments monitor sixty-two (62) of these beaches. The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection monitors the remaining four (4) State Park marine beaches. Connecticut has adopted a set of beach monitoring guidelines that are based on US EPA standards for recreational bathing waters. These guidelines have been in effect since May 1989. They were revised most recently in April 2003. Questions about a municipal beach should be directed to the shoreline local health department that monitors it. Questions about a State Park beach should be directed to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Figure 1. Connecticut coastal counties. Middlesex New London New Haven Fairfield Table 1, Breakdown of monitored and unmonitored coastal beaches by county for 2007. County Total Beaches Monitored Not Monitored FAIRFIELD 28 28 0 MIDDLESEX 5 5 0 NEW HAVEN 19 19 0 NEW LONDON 14 14 0 TOTALS 66 66 0 ------- 2007 Summary Results How many notification actions were reported and how long were they? Connecticut's approach is to issue a beach advisory or closure when water quality standards are exceeded at a particular beach to warn people to avoid contact with the ocean water. A total of 33 monitored beaches had at least one notification action issued during the 2007 swimming season. About 91 percent of Connecticut's notification actions lasted two days or less. Figure 2 presents a full breakdown of notification action durations. What percentage of days were beaches under a notification action? For Connecticut's 2007 swimming season, actions were reported about 2 percent of the time (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 Connecticut's monitored beaches potentially impacted by various pollution sources. In 2007, 67 percent of the beaches included storm-related runoff as a known potential source. No pollution sources were identified at 11 percent of the beaches. For More Information For general information about beaches: www.epa.gov/beaches/ For information about beaches in Connecticut: http://www.ct.gov/dph/site/default.asp Click Programs and Services at the top of the Web page. Then select Public Beaches. Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration. 70- 60- ns en o o cti o < of CO o o „„ z 20- 10- 0 - 60 1-2 3-7 8-30 Duration of Actions (days) > 30 Figure 3: Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2005-2007. 2005 2006 2007 Number of monitored beaches 67 67 66 Number of beaches affected by notification actions 28 40 33 Percentage of beaches affected by notification actions 42% 60% 50% Percentage of beach days affected by notification actions 3% 3% 2% Figure 4: Percent of monitored beaches potentially impacted by pollution sources (66 beaches). 0 10 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 0 rzi 6 20 ] 18 J 1 4 ] 1 2 30 Percent of beaches 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 20 20 ZZI5 ~ 18 ]11 Note: a single beach may have multiple sources. ~ 67 Beach days with no action __ 6,360 (98.3%) Beach days with and without notification actions. Beach days with an action: 108 (1.7%) ------- |