BEACH Act
Water pollution levels are required to be monitored regularly for bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E.coli), and other pathogen indicators.
Congress passed the BEACH Act based on the concern for public health and water quality.
Numerous changes were made to the draft before being passed through the Senate, including deadlines on publications and studies for the EPA, the clarification of waters covered, the inclusion of territories and Indian Tribes, and implementation of monitoring programs.
The Surfrider Foundation continues to fight for the implementation and funding of the BEACH Act by emphasizing the importance of public health.
[3] Initially, the coastal recreation water quality criteria stated that every state adjacent to coastal recreational waters must submit their pathogen and pathogen indicator criteria no later than 42 months after the enactment of section 303(i) and section 304(a).
There has been a $10 million cut in grants for testing, which has led local governments to fund pollution monitoring activities.
Coastal and Great Lake states are eligible for funding if they fall under the requirements of CWA section 406 (b)(2)(A).
In order for tribes to be eligible for grants, they must be nearby coastal recreational waters that are accessible to the public.
When allocating grants, EPA considers several factors such as the length of the beach season, shoreline miles, and coastal county population.
To apply for a grant, applicants must report an outline of methodologies, data, and steps taken to notify the public about water quality standards.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management also allocated its resources to share the importance of beach monitoring.
Beach managers and park departments developed a system of kiosks to inform the public when there are signs of E.coli contamination in recreational waters.
Under the BEACH Act, the EPA is required to publish a report every four years that outlines recommendations for water quality improvement, the actions that have been taken to enhance the quality of coastal recreation waters, an evaluation of the efforts taken to implement the BEACH Act at the federal, state, and local level; and the recommendations to improve monitoring systems for coastal recreation waters.
To meet this requirement, the EPA created the Beach Advisory and Closing Online Notification (BEACON) system.
Recently, it has been upgraded to BEACON 2.0 with a new mapping interface, report creation wizard, and RSS feed generator.
The STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) database and Water Quality Exchange (WQX) provides updated data from the monitoring stations.
