State and local health and environmental agencies in coastal areas can receive almost $10 million in funding from the EPA to monitor water quality and develop notification programs to inform the public of exposure risks. The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) of October 2000 is the funding mechanism and the allocation formula is based on beach season length, beach miles and beach use.
Each grant ranges from $150,000 to $528,000. Coastal and Great Lakes states, territories and tribes are eligible for the grants which include performance criteria and address risk based beach evaluation and classification; beach monitoring and assessment; and risk communication. The classification system must rank coastal areas by risks of disease to swimmers. The monitoring program must be designed to detect pathogens and pathogen indicators harmful to human health. And, the notification program needs to identify how the EPA and local governments will be notified when bacteria levels exceed water quality standards. The grants are awarded for coastal recreation waters only and are for projects for the 2009 fiscal year.
