User talk:Joanns2you

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The Beach Act
BEACH Act: Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal health Act of 2000 October 10, 2000 by President Bill Clinton Amended CWA Federal law that sets national standards for recreational water testing and authorizes state grants to pay for beach monitoring programs. The BEACH Act required EPA to develop performance criteria for testing, monitoring, and notifying public users of possible coastal recreation water problems.

Provisions: 1) Section 303(i) → requires states, territories, and tribes along coastal recreational regions to adopt/revise water quality standards for pathogens/pathogen indicators under CWA section 304(a). 2) Section 104(v) and 304(a) → requires EPA to conduct studies on pathogen effects on human health, publish new or revised pathogen and pathogen indicator criteria based on previously mentioned studies, 3) Section 406 → Award grants to state and local governments to implement beach monitoring and assessment program. 4) Section 502 → definition of “coastal recreation waters;” Great Lakes, marine coastal waters, coastal estuaries are designated under the CWA section 303(c) for swimming, bathing, surfing, and other water contact activities. "Coastal recreation waters" do not include inland waters or waters upstream of the mouth of a river or stream that has an unimpaired connection with the open sea.

Federal funding: Congress authorized BEACH Act for $30 million, but never appropriated that much In 2007, Congress granted $9.9 million for water quality monitoring, In 2008, funding was $9.75 million

Grant Funding: “Provides grants to states, territories, tribes, and local governments to protect beachgoers from contaminated water at coastal beaches including the Great Lakes” Funds must be used for programs for careful monitoring/notifying https://www.epa.gov/beach-tech/beach-grants

Fiscal Year Grant Total 2016 $9462 2015 $9486 2014 $9549 2013 $9349 2012 $9864 Based on three factors: Length of beach season Shoreline Miles Coastal County Population

Key Terms:

Scientific Water Testing:

Implementation of Act in Different States/examples: EPA getting sued, because it could not a comply. New deadline was created. “Since EPA did not comply with this requirement by the deadline specified in the Act, they were sued by NRDC and others and under a settlement agreement they were required to publish new criteria by Fall 2012. Under section 303(i)(l)(B), states that coastal recreation waters are directed to adopt new or revised water quality standards for all pathogens and pathogen indicators to which the EPA's new or revised section 304(a) criteria are applicable by not later than three years after the EPA's publication of the new or revised section 304(a) criteria.” Beach Protection Act of 2007 State representatives introduced the Beach Protection Act of 2007 to address the underfunding of the BEACH Act; proposed raising the authorized funding level to $60 million. “The Beach Protection Act of 2007 would have required the EPA and states to do more to not only monitor water quality, but to take steps toward solving national beach pollution problems. The Beach Protection Act of 2007 would have required the EPA to adopt rapid testing methods to provide water quality data within hours of sampling and force states to issue swimming advisories or beach closures within 24 hours to prevent the public's exposure to pollutants. The Beach Protection Act also sets higher standards for state beach monitoring programs, requiring each state to maintain an online database with water quality information available for each beach, all advisories and closures. The Beach Protection Act would have, additionally, allowed states to use their beach grants to track the source of beach water pollution and to take action to address and solve their water quality problems.” Congress never passed the act. Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act of 2009

Criticisms/Concerns:

Results: “Section 7 of the BEACH Act required the EPA to publish a report to Congress four years after the enactment and every four years thereafter. The Act required the report to include: Recommendations concerning the need for additional water quality criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators and other actions that should be taken to improve the quality of coastal recreation waters, an evaluation of federal, state, and local efforts to implement the act, recommendations on improvements to methodologies and techniques for monitoring coastal recreational waters.”

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the BEach Advisory and Closing Online Notification (BEACON) system to meet the Agency's requirement to provide to the public a database of pollution occurrences for coastal recreation waters.” The system was updated by the EPA to BEACON 2.0. https://watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/about.html

Sources/information to check out: http://www.in.gov/idem/beaches/2347.htm http://dornsife-blogs.usc.edu/enst-320a/water-and-soil/?tag=beach-act http://www.surfrider.org/coastal-blog/entry/the-beach-act-at-15-years http://www.beachapedia.org/Beaches_Environmental_Assessment_and_Coastal_Health_(BEACH)_Act_of_2000 https://www.epa.gov/beach-tech/about-beach-act https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-beach-act