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EPA RELEASES RESULTS OF BEACH SURVEY
Release Date: 05/27/99
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, MAY 27 1999
EPA RELEASES RESULTS OF BEACH SURVEY
Under EPA’s BEACH program, initiated in May l997 by EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner, the agency conducted the second annual National Health Protection Survey of Beaches this spring. More than 300 beach water quality monitoring officials were asked to participate. The survey participants were asked which beaches are being monitored, how often they are monitored, who conducts the monitoring, where and how often advisories or closures were issued, what methods are used to determine beach advisories and closures, and how often water quality standards at local beaches were exceeded in 1998. EPA gathered information on approximately 1,400 beaches nationwide, an increase of approximately 400 beaches since last year. EPA’s review of coastal beaches (U.S. coastal areas and the Great Lakes) showed that of the 1,062 coastal beaches, more than 350 beaches had an advisory or closure in 1998. The number of participants increased by almost 80 respondants, approximately a 50 percent increase over last year’s survey. More than 70 percent of the participants were local or regional agencies. The results of the 1999 survey will be available on EPA's BEACH Watch web site at: https://www.epa.gov/ost/beaches. On the BEACH Watch web site, for the first time, the public can pull up area maps of beaches and get information on water quality monitoring efforts in their communities and if any advisories or closures were issued at local beaches over the past year. Although the database includes a significant number of coastal and Great Lakes beaches, it does not include all U.S. beaches. Only the beaches whose monitoring officials responded to EPA's survey are included. EPA intends to conduct this survey each year and as new information becomes available it will be added to the BEACH Watch web site. Next year EPA hopes to add more freshwater beaches to the survey. Also available on the BEACH Watch web site is the modeling report, “Review of Potential Modeling Tools and Approaches to Support the BEACH Program,” which summarizes the predictive tools used by local beach-water-quality monitoring officials to determine if a health advisory or beach closure is needed. Current methods of water quality testing take several hours to determine if a health risk exists at a particular beach. These and other EPA models are being evaluated to determine their applicability to real-time prediction of pathogen concentrations in the water at local beaches. Both the 1999 survey and the modeling report were conducted under the President's Clean Water Action Plan announced in 1998 and EPA's Beach Action Plan, released this April. Browner’s l997 BEACH initiative established an accelerated program to help states ensure public health and safety at beaches and other recreational waters. EPA is helping states set recreational water quality standards, based on established EPA criteria, as well as helping states provide better monitoring at these locations, through improved and more timely detection methods. EPA continues to fund research and provide technical support to states to help ensure safer recreational waters.
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