DE & MD to Receive EPA Funding to Monitor Water Quality at Beaches

Federal grant funding from the EPA will help with monitoring water quality at beaches in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. A total of $962,000 in grant funding will be available through the BEACH Act – or Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act. It’s anticipated that Delaware will receive $210,000 and $265,000 for Maryland (Pennsylvania:  $216,000 and Virginia:  $271,000) after all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied. These grants help local authorities monitor beach water quality, notify the public of conditions that may be unsafe for swimming The grants help local authorities monitor beach water quality, notify the public of conditions that may be unsafe for swimming and submit data to the EPA for inclusion in a publicly accessible system, BEACON.

Additional information from the EPA:

This allocation is part of the $9.7 million total in grant funding announced by the agency last week.

Learn more about the BEACH Act grants.

To be eligible for BEACH Act grants, states, Tribes, and territories must have coastal or Great Lakes recreational waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access used by the public. They must also have a water quality standards program and EPA-approved numeric recreational water quality standards for coastal waters. Additionally, eligible entities must meet 11 performance criteria for implementing monitoring, assessment, and notification components of the beach program. Each grantee receives an amount based on the length of the beach season, the number of miles of shoreline and the populations of coastal counties.