Marine and Freshwater Beach Testing in Massachusetts Annual Report 2004 Season Prepared by Massachusetts Department of Public Health Center for Environmental Health Environmental Toxicology Program June 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 2 A. OVERVIEW ..............................................................................................................2 II. BACKGROUND.................................................................................................... 8 A. INFORMATION ON BEACH WATER QUALITY ...............................................................8 1. Health Effects from Swimming in Marine Waters ........................................................ 8 2. Beach Water Quality Testing Methods - Marine.......................................................... 8 3. Historical and Current Water Quality Criteria - Marine ............................................ 11 4. Health Effects From Swimming in Freshwater ........................................................... 13 5. Beach Water Quality Testing Methods – Freshwater............................................... 13 6. Current Water Quality Criteria – Freshwater............................................................... 14 B. MDPH ACCOMPLISHMENTS - 2004........................................................................15 1. Beaches Website................................................................................................................. 15 2. Beach Mapping Project...................................................................................................... 16 3. Tiered Monitoring - Sanitary Surveys............................................................................ 16 4. Training................................................................................................................................... 17 5. Laboratory Programs.......................................................................................................... 17 6. Press Event ........................................................................................................................... 18 III. METHODS .......................................................................................................... 19 A. SAMPLE COLLECTION............................................................................................19 B. LABORATORY ANALYSIS ........................................................................................20 C. DATA REPORTING .................................................................................................21 D. DATA VALIDATION .................................................................................................21 E. PUBLIC NOTIFICATION ...........................................................................................21 F. LIMITATIONS..........................................................................................................22 IV. RESULTS ........................................................................................................... 24 A. MARINE BEACHES ............................................................................................25 B. FRESHWATER BEACHES .................................................................................26 V. DISCUSSION...................................................................................................... 29 A. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS..........................................................................................29 B. FUTURE PLANS .....................................................................................................32 VI. SUMMARY.......................................................................................................... 35 VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... 36 VIII. REFERENCES.................................................................................................... 37 IX. TABLES .................................................................................................................. 40 X. FIGURES............................................................................................................... 109 XI. APPENDICES ....................................................................................................... 137 A. MASSACHUSETTS STATE REGULATIONS B. GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS C. MASSACHUSETTS’ BEACH ACT D. FEDERAL BEACH ACT E. MDPH BEACH SAMPLING FIELD DATA FORM 1 I. INTRODUCTION A. OVERVIEW Massachusetts has an extensive collection of recreational waters, including both freshwater and marine bathing beaches. These beaches serve as recreational resources to the local communities. Bathing beach water quality is an important public health concern, and it is of vital importance to ensure that the beaches meet all current public health standards. Recreational use of waters contaminated with microbial contamination can result in human health problems such as sore throat, gastroenteritis, or even meningitis or encephalitis (Cabelli, 1983; USEPA, 1986; Cabelli, 1989; Haile, 1996; Pruss, 1998). As a result, beach water quality is regulated to protect public health. In Massachusetts, bathing beach water quality is regulated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) under Massachusetts General Law (MGL) Chapter (C) 111, § Section (S)5 and regulations cited as 105 Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) 445.000: Minimum Standards for Bathing Beaches (State Sanitary Code, Chapter VII; Appendix A and B). All public and semi-public (e.g., campgrounds, motels) bathing beaches in Massachusetts must be monitored for bacterial and sometimes other types of contamination during the bathing season. The bathing beach season in Massachusetts runs from as early as Memorial Day in some areas, through Labor Day during most years. Local boards of health (BOH), the Barnstable County Department of Health and the Environment, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) conduct the vast majority of beach water sampling in Massachusetts. Most marine beach samples are analyzed at MDPH contracted laboratories. Most freshwater samples are analyzed at private laboratories, while some are analyzed at municipal facilities. Bathing water samples that are found to contain levels of bacterial contamination in excess of regulatory standards are termed exceedances. If water samples from a beach are found to be in exceedance of regulatory standards, the beach must be posted as unsafe for swimming due to bacterial contamination. The general public is notified via signs posted at access points to a beach indicating the beach posting. For marine 2 beaches, the general public is also notified via the MDPH website, which is operated in collaboration with local health officials and MDPH contract laboratories. Local health officials and MDPH contract laboratories collect and analyze the samples and perform a majority of the data entry onto the website. MDPH is notified of exceedences within 24 hours (105 CMR 445.040). These beaches are to remain posted until the levels of bacterial contamination lower to safe levels, at which point the postings can be removed, and the MDPH is notified of the beach opening. The Massachusetts Beaches Act (Appendix C) was passed in 2000, requiring all public and semi-public beaches to be tested weekly during beach season using standard indicators. In 2000, the U.S. Congress enacted the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act that amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act, or CWA) to improve the quality of coastal recreational waters (Appendix D). The BEACH Act seeks to reduce the risk of disease to users of the Nation’s marine recreational waters through the identification of high-risk beaches, identification and mitigation of sources of pollution, and notification/risk communication to the public. It also authorizes grants to eligible states to support these objectives. Since late 2001, MDPH has received funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that partially supports MDPH efforts to (1) develop and maintain an inventory of marine bathing beaches, (2) compile and analyze monitoring data, and (3) to conduct assessments of those beaches identified as high-risk. Based on work through the MDPH Beaches Project, MDPH has been able to make several major accomplishments in support of these goals: Bathing Beaches Inventory Prior to 2001, MDPH conducted a survey of Massachusetts municipalities in order to initiate the establishment of an inventory of all public and semi-public marine and freshwater beaches. Through the collection of beach water data and contacts with local boards of health, beach managers, and others, MDPH has been able to develop an inventory of over 500 marine public and semi-public beaches and over 600 freshwater public and semi-public beaches. 3 Bathing Beaches Mapping Project In 2003, a detailed geographic information system (GIS) layer for Massachusetts marine bathing beaches was developed by MDPH with assistance from Applied Geographics, Inc. (AGI), and with considerable information from local health officials. State health officials, working with local health officials, identified the locations and specific boundaries of each known beach, the designations of each beach – public or semi-