EPA Reports Beaches Open for 95% of 2009 Season
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's annual national beach swimming season report, viewable online, indicates that the nation’s coastal and Great Lakes beaches were open 95 percent of the time during the 2009 swimming season.
Since the passage of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000, EPA has provided grants totaling nearly $92 million to coastal and Great Lakes states, territories, and eligible tribes to monitor their coastal and Great Lakes beaches and to notify the public when water sampling for pathogen indicators identifies potential health problems.