The BEACH Act was passed on October 10, 2000. The BEACH Act was an amendment to the Clean Water Act as section 406, which authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award grants to states and tribes to develop and implement programs to monitor and assess, for pathogens and pathogen indicators, coastal recreation waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access that are used by the public, and to notify the public if applicable water quality standards for pathogens and pathogen indicators are exceeded.

The EPA published the National Beach Guidance and Required Performance Criteria for Grants in June of 2002. This document provides performance criteria for monitoring and assessment of coastal recreation waters adjacent to beaches, and prompt public notification of any exceedance or likelihood of exceedance of applicable water quality standards for pathogens and pathogen indicators for coastal recreational waters. Interested persons may see the document from the EPA web site at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/beaches.

Indiana is teaming up with the Save the Dunes Council, the State of Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University, and the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program to develop a Beach Monitoring and Notification Plan. Several contracts were awarded across Northwest Indiana to try to meet the performance criteria through evaluation, classification and increased monitoring. Outreach efforts were conducted to make the public aware of the ramifications that the BEACH Act had on their individual communities. Indiana is planning to improve the consistency of testing and notification of closures and advisories throughout northwest Indiana. They are working with beach managers, health departments, and individual communities.

Additional Indiana information can be found at http://swann2.ansc.purdue.edu/nwibeach/beachAct.asp.

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