Reducing and Preventing Beach Closures Northern New England Meeting May 5, 2006 Fairlee, VT

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Reducing and Preventing Beach Closures Northern
New England MeetingMay 5, 2006 Fairlee, VT
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New England has a short swimming season.One out
of four beaches experiences a closure or an
advisory every year
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Pathogens linked to outbreaks in recreational
waters, 19852000 (USEPA, 2004, from CDC
surveillance reports)
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Swimmers are more at risk (by about 2) than non
swimmers in both point source and non point
source dominated waters

• Children typically exhibit greater risk of
  illness
• Current thresholds are appropriate, especially
  for point source dominated waters
• Traditional indicators do not predict illnesses
  at non point source dominated waters

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(No Transcript)
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EPAs Clean Beaches Initiative Protects public
health by reducing beach closures with
consistent, appropriate monitoring and
notification

• Issue Beach Grants
• Control stormwater
• Provide technical assistance with surveys
• Promote and improve high quality monitoring and
  and assessment technologies
• Coordinate among federal, state and local health
  agencies
• Track progress among states, and Flagship Beaches

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Using over 1 million annually Federal Beach
Act funding, all New England states

• monitor water quality at beaches using
  enterococci
• assess sources of pathogens (perform sanitary
  surveys)
• and notify the public of water quality conditions

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With the grants, New England beaches are
monitored more extensively than five years ago

• CT has 67 public regulated beaches all are
  monitored
• In ME 43 of 45 coastal beaches are now monitored,
  up from 7 in 2000
• MA has over 510 coastal beaches all beaches are
  monitored, up from 177 in 2000
• NH has 16 coastal beaches - all are monitored, up
  from 9 in 2000
• RI has 70 licensed coastal beaches all are
  monitored

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States have developed many ways to notify the
public
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Control non-point and storm water pollution
sources that contribute to beach closures -- the
major known cause of beach closures is storm water
(source, EPA 2002 national beach watch survey)

• Eliminate human fecal contamination of storm
  water -- (illicit discharges) -- part of the 6
  minimum controls of the NPDES storm water permit

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We find three typical kinds of problems at
coastal beaches

• CSOs, leaky sewers
• Culvertized streams integrated into the
  stormwater infrastructure
• Parking lot pipes

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Culvertization of coastal streams is a problem at
many beaches
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The value of monitoring -- remediation of sewer
connection to storm water system improved water
quality at Warren Town Beach in RI
In 2003, some storm water samples exceeded
400,000 enterococci mpn per 100 ml

• 2003 closed 78 days

2004 closed 0 days
Source RI DOH
Source RI DOH
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Across New England, were seeing slight
improvements in water quality
As reported to EPA by states, data for summer
2005 not yet available, but preliminary results
show declines in NH, but not in ME
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On the menu for today Tools strategies to
target resources to improve water quality at
freshwater beaches

• Speakers will describe examples from
• Lake Champlain
• Inland VT lakes and rivers
• New Hampshire Lakes
• Bacteria problems
• Blue green algae problems

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The Next Step Using monitoring and assessment
information to identify sources of bacteria and
correct them
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Special thanks to staff at EPA New England and
the state beach programs

• www.epa.gov/ne/eco/beaches