Beach Water Quality in the United States
If you've been to the beach this summer and experienced beach closures, you are not alone. There may be an increase on the way.
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Those statistics are based on both an increase in samples falling below clean water standards and an increase in the number of sites available for testing.
What causes beach closures? State and local governments are responsible for making beach closure decisions based on water quality data. What qualifies as a sufficiently dirty water level to cause a beach closure varies from state to state. The minimum contamination threshold is based on a 1986 EPA water quality standard that tests for bacteria levels.This current system of determining water quality standards grows out of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000, a revision to the Clean Water Act with the goal of protecting citizen health along the country's beaches. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the administrative branch of government responsible for its implementation.
Over the six years of the Act's existence, the EPA has instituted a variety of measures to implement its terms. For example, they set up a grants program to help state and local governments purchase and install the proper equipment for measuring water quality along their coasts. The EPA has also collected a data base of information about specific beach closures around the country. EPA Beacon compiles a list of beach closure records at the state, county and specific beach level. You can get to your own beach by clicking on the state map and following directions to get a county and specific beach. The information is good for research, however, it does not carry up to date beach closure announcements. In many cases they do provide local contact information.
By 2004 each state was suppose to have both the water quality standards and testing equipment in place in order to begin providing more standardized and accurate data on beach water quality throughout the United States. Those states not in compliance would be required to follow the 1986 EPA standard. The Beach Act also called for the EPA to update its water quality standards by October 2005. Commenting on that rule in 2004, the American Society for Microbiology suggested that the EPA should expand the testing to check for bacteria that could cause respiratory and other illnesses.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) regularly monitors Water Quality at U.S. Beaches and produces an annual report called Testing the Waters. The organization has been conducting these surveys for sixteen years, and over time they have developed a good deal of expertise on the topic. There is both good news and bad news with respect to their most recent (2006) report. The good news is that over the course of time, states are beginning to standardize their water quality testing and reporting methods. This means that the reliability of the NRDC data supporting the report's conclusions and policy recommendations has improved. NRDC starts with EPA data and then supplements it with data they collect straight from the state, county or specific beach source.
The bad news is that the NRDC continues to find increasing rates of beach closure days for U.S. beaches, including the Great Lakes area. Additionally they believe the Bush Administration has been foot dragging on implementing new water quality standards. On August 3, 2006, the NRDC sued the EPA, charging that they failed to properly implement the Beach Act of 2000 by not revising the water quality test. When the courts decide on the question of when water quality standards should be updated, there could very well be more stringent testing measures implemented. These new testing measures could cause continued increase in beach closures because they would test for more factors that could close a beach.
Source: 2006 Patricia A. Michaels