You are here:
BATHING BEACH MONITORING PROTOCOLS/COMMUNICATING SWIMMING ACTIVITY RISK TO THE PUBLIC
Impact/Purpose:
Develop new bathing beach monitoring protocols and new approaches for communicating risks associated with swimming and other recreational water activities.
Description:
Current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended monitoring practices for bathing beach water quality were suggested in 1968, as a part of the fecal coliform guideline developed by the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration. The guideline stated that five water samples should be taken over a thirty-day period and that the geometric mean of the fecal coliform count of the five samples would be used to establish a limit beyond which the risk of illness would not be acceptable. Since that time, the EPA has developed much better health risk-based guidelines for bathing beach waters, which were recommended to the States in 1986. The recommendations, however, used the old guidelines for monitoring bathing beach waters. The uncertainty associated with the old guideline due to the low number of samples and the undefined beach water quality sampling protocol results in information that frequently lacks meaning to regulatory authorities and the public. This guidance shortcoming can be overcome by developing a scientifically defensible monitoring protocol for bathing beach waters that accounts for spatial and temporal variability, has national application, and can be translated into a simple system the public can use to make personal decisions about risks associated with swimming activities.
This study will examine several representative beaches from various sections of the United States in depth. The beaches will be selected based on pollution sources, population density, type of swimming water (fresh or marine), and the type of beach (large coastal beaches, small lake or impoundment beaches, river recreational areas). Appropriate sampling designs will be developed to account for variation associated with spatial factors, e.g., depth of water, length of the beach and its distance from shore to permissible swimming limits, and temporal factors, such as hourly, daily and seasonal variation. The design will provide data from various types of beaches and water environments that will be compatible and easily integrated into a national monitoring protocol. Water sampling studies will be carried out at the selected beaches using the bacterial water quality indicator methods currently recommended by the EPA. After completing the data collection phase of the project, statistical analysis will be initiated to characterize the microbial measurements of water quality. The characterized data will be subsequently used in a workshop where a group of experts will develop a protocol for beach water quality that can be used by the public.
The results of this project and the EMPACT project, entitled "Development of a Monitoring Protocol for Recreational Waters and a System for Timely Access of Water Quality Data for the Public," will be a comprehensive monitoring protocol for sampling bathing beach waters based on a sound statistical design defining the uncertainty associated with sampling. The public will benefit directly from this project because they will have access to time-relevant, understandable water quality information which will allow them to make reliable decisions about risks associated with recreational beach activities. There will also be a secondary benefit to risk managers, who will have a recreational water monitoring protocol based on sound science available for use.