The California Water Boards' Annual Performance Report - Fiscal Year 2014-15
PLAN AND ASSESS: COASTAL BEACHES
GROUP:
BEACH AVAILABILITY
MEASURE:
NUMBER OF BEACH CLOSURES
NUMBER OF BEACH POSTINGS
MESSAGE:
Beaches are available for swimming 99% of the time.
KEY STATISTICS FOR FY 2014-15
Number of Beach Closures:
20
Number of Beach Postings:
1,053
MEASUREMENTS - Data last updated on: 05-14-2015 (11:41 am)
Region
Number of Beaches
Number of Beach Closure Events
Number of Days Beaches Closed
Number of Beach Mile Days Closed
Number of Beaches Posted Events
Number of Days Beaches Posted
Number of Beach Mile Days Posted
Total Days Posted or Closed
Total Beach Mile Days Posted or Closed
% of Swim Days not Fully Available
% of Swim Beach Mile Days not Available
1
67
0
0
0
16
44
2
44
2
0.4%
0.012%
2
76
2
11
1
176
1,510
84
1,521
85
10.8%
0.573%
3
106
3
3
0
132
970
55
973
55
3.9%
0.187%
4
84
0
0
0
555
3,547
201
3,547
201
12.2%
0.758%
8
7
3
7
1
88
196
26
203
27
7.9%
0.082%
9
93
12
46
49
86
683
180
729
229
3.6%
0.676%
TOTAL
433
20
67
51
1,053
6,950
548
7,017
599
6.8%
0.389%
WHAT THE MEASURE IS SHOWING
Although not all beaches are monitored every year, high use beaches are monitored regularly. Almost 15,000 monitoring events were conducted in FY 2008-09 during the swim season. A greater number of monitoring events is conducted in the southern California regions, mostly due to higher use and the longer swim season.
WHY THIS MEASURE IS IMPORTANT
California has some of the most popular beaches in the country. Over 150 million day visits are generated by tourists and residents to swim, wade, surf, and dive. Beach visitors spend over $10 billion each year in California. The vast majority of the time, California beaches are open and available for recreation. Unfortunately, there are times when it is not advisable to go in the coastal waters due to bacterial contamination. Postings are advisories to not contact the water because monitoring shows elevated bacterial levels. Closures are water contact prohibitions due to sewage spills. This measure represents the availability of California’s beaches.
TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Data source: Beach Watch Database. Period: July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. Extracted in June 2009.
Unit of Measure: Number of beaches (number), beach length (in miles), swim season number of potential beach days (days), swim season number of potential beach mile days (beach mile days).
Data Definitions Postings: advisories to not contact the water because monitoring shows elevated bacterial levels . Closures: Closures are water contact prohibitions due to sewage spills.
Local health agencies are responsible for issuing advisories (postings) and closures. An advisory is issued when the results of testing indicate that one or more bacterial levels exceed the Ocean Water Contact Sport Standards issued by the California Department of Health Services (HS Code 115875-115915). Posted advisories usually are placed as signs at the beach and often along access points to the beach saying that swimming may cause illness. Beach closures are the result of sewage spills that will or have the potential to reach coastal waters. Closures are issued immediately upon notification by the agency responsible for the spill and closure signs are posted along the beach. For beach closures, the water remains off limits for wading, swimming and surfing until bacterial standards are met. Information about current posting (advisory) and closure events are also available for most counties on their web sites and telephone hotlines (County Contact links page)
