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EPA's BEACH Report:
Virginia 2008 Swimming Season
July 2009
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 Virginia for the 2008
swimming season.
Figure 1. Virginia coastal counties.
Math
Gloucester
York
Newport
News
Hampton
Norfolk
Accomack
Northampton
Virginia
Beach
Table 1. Breakdown of monitored and
unmonitored coastal beaches by
county for 2008.
Total	Not
County	Beaches Monitored Monitored
ACCOMACK
2
1
1
GLOUCESTER
1
1
0
HAMPTON
2
2
0
KING GEORGE
1
1
0
MATHEWS
1
1
0
NEWPORT NEWS
4
4
0
NORFOLK
9
9
0
NORTHAMPTON
2
2
0
VIRGINIA BEACH
24
22
2
YORK
1
1
0
TOTALS
47
44
3

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2008 Summary Results
How many notification actions were reported
and how long were they?
When water quality standards are exceeded at a
particular beach, Virginia's approach is to issue a
beach advisory that warns people to avoid contact
with the ocean water. A total of 6 monitored
beaches had at least one advisory issued during the
2008 swimming season. Sixty percent of Virginia'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 Virginia's 2008 swimming season, actions were
reported less than 1 percent of the time (Figure 3).
How do 2008 results compare to previous
years?
Table 2 compares 2008 notification action data with
monitored beach data from previous years.
What pollution sources possibly affect
investigated monitored beaches?
Possible sources of pollution affecting Virginia's
investigated monitored beaches were not identified
in 2008 (Figure 4).
For More Information
For general information about beaches:
www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about beaches in Virginia:
www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/DEE/
BeachMonitoring/
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
V o
< 3
~i	
2	3- 7	8-30
Duration of Actions (days)
>30
Figure 3:
Table 2. Beach notification actions, 2006-2008.

2006
2007
2008
Number of monitored
beaches
47
47
44
Number of beaches
affected by notification
actions
4
8
6
Percentage of beaches
affected by notification
actions
9%
17%
14%
Percentage of beach
days affected by
notification actions
1%
1%
<1%
Figure 4: Percent of investigated monitored beaches affected by
possible pollution sources (44 beaches).
0 10 20
Investigated I no sources found	o
Non-storm related runoff	o
Storm-related runoff	o
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) sou rce(s)	o
Unidentified source(s)
30
Percent of beaches
40 50 60 70
80 90 100
Note: A single beach may
have multiple sources.
100
Beach days
with no action
6,703
(99.6%)
Beach days with
and without
notification
actions.
Beach days
with an action:
29
(0.4%)

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