[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 147 (Tuesday, July 31, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39510-39512]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-19150]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7021-7]


Announcement of Public Comment Period for Draft National Beach 
Guidance and Performance Criteria for Recreation Waters

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Availability; Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed and is 
requesting public comments on the draft National Beach Guidance and 
Performance Criteria for Recreation Waters. This document provides 
proposed 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 
recreation waters. This document also outlines the eligibility 
requirements for grants to implement monitoring and notification 
programs under section 406(b) of the Beaches Environmental Assessment 
and Coastal Health Act. This document is intended to be used by 
potential grant recipients to implement effective programs for 
monitoring and assessing coastal recreation waters. The document will 
also provide guidance for Federal agencies to implement beach 
monitoring and notification programs when States do not implement a 
program consistent with the performance criteria. The

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information submitted in response to this notice will be considered by 
EPA in the completion of the final document.

DATES: EPA will consider all comments received on or before 11:59 p.m. 
EDT October 1, 2001. Comments received after this time may be reviewed 
at EPA's discretion.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons may obtain a copy of the draft 
requirements from the Office of Science and Technology's website at 
http://www.epa.gov/ost/beaches/meetings/links.html or by contacting the 
Office of Water Resources Center at 202-260-7786 (e-mail: [email protected]); mailing address is: Office of Water Resources 
Center, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RC-4100, 1200 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460. Please request the draft 
National Beach Guidance and Grant Performance Criteria for Recreation 
Waters (EPA-823-R-01-005) July 2001.
    Please send electronically mailed comments to [email protected]. 
Please send mailed comments to: W-01-08 Comment Clerk, Water Docket (MC 
4101); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
NW; Washington, DC 20460. Overnight delivery or hand delivery should be 
delivered to EPA's Water Docket at 401 M Street, SW; Room EB57; 
Washington, DC, 20460. Please see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for other 
information about comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Kovatch by phone at (202) 260-
3754 or e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

What Does the BEACH Act Require?

    The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH 
Act) was passed on October 10, 2000. It amended the Clean Water Act 
(CWA) in part by adding section 406, which authorizes EPA to award 
grants to States for the purpose of developing and implementing a 
program to monitor, for pathogens and pathogen indicators, coastal 
recreation water adjacent to beaches that are used by the public and to 
notify the public if water quality standards for pathogens and pathogen 
indicators are exceeded. Section 406(a) requires EPA to establish 
performance criteria for monitoring and assessment of coastal 
recreation waters and the prompt notification of any actual or 
potential exceedance of applicable water quality standards. EPA must 
publish the performance criteria after providing public notice and the 
opportunity for comment. EPA may award grants for implementation of a 
monitoring and notification program only if the program is consistent 
with the performance criteria. A complete copy of the BEACH Act can be 
found at http://www.epa.gov/OST/beaches/technical.html

How Did EPA Draft the Document?

    The BEACH Act requires EPA to publish the performance criteria 
after providing public notice and the opportunity for comment. EPA 
developed this draft of the performance criteria, based in part on a 
series of consultations with representatives of state water pollution 
agencies, coastal protection agencies, public health agencies, and 
other interested parties.

What Is the Purpose of the Document?

    The performance criteria and guidance document has three functions. 
First, it establishes performance criteria for (a) monitoring and 
assessment of coastal recreation waters adjacent to beaches (or similar 
points of access that are used by the public) for attainment of 
applicable water quality standards for pathogens and pathogen 
indicators; and (b) the prompt public notification of any exceedance or 
likelihood of exceedance of applicable water quality standards for 
pathogens and pathogen indicators for coastal recreation waters.
    Second, this document summarizes the requirements for grants. It 
explains whether the requirements apply to development grants, 
implementation grants, or both. This document is intended to be used by 
potential grant recipients to implement effective programs for 
monitoring and assessing coastal recreation waters.
    Third, this document is intended to promote consistency among 
States and localities by recommending standard approaches for 
recreational water quality programs. The document will assist local 
health departments, water quality managers, beach managers, and other 
local, State, and Tribal agencies to (a) improve microbial water 
quality monitoring programs for more consistent protection of coastal 
recreation waters, (b) assess, manage, and communicate health risks 
from waterborne microbial contamination, (c) notify the public of beach 
advisories and implement closings to help prevent public exposure to 
potentially harmful pathogens.
    The document can also serve as a reference guide for how and when 
to conduct beach assessments because it includes protocols for water 
sample collection, sample handling, and laboratory analysis. It 
provides information about the use of predictive models to estimate 
indicator levels and includes procedures for public notification about 
beach advisories, closings, and openings.

What Does the Draft Document Address?

    The draft document has five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses human 
pathogens and health concerns, describes how recreational water quality 
standards have been established, discusses relevant statutes and 
programs, and addresses other relevant issues. Chapter 2 briefly 
summarizes the performance criteria and the requirements that an 
applicant must meet to receive a program implementation grant. The 
chapter identifies relevant sections of the BEACH Act, briefly 
describes the corresponding performance criteria that EPA has 
developed, and provides additional grant-related information. Chapter 3 
describes the risk-based evaluation process that EPA recommends for 
States to classify and prioritize their recreational beaches for 
monitoring and public notification. This step-by-step approach allows 
States to assess the relative human health risks and usage of their 
beaches and assign an appropriate management priority to each of them. 
Chapter 4 describes the performance criteria related to monitoring and 
assessment and provides detailed technical guidance. Chapter 5 
describes the performance criteria and technical guidance related to 
the public notification and risk communication portions of a beach 
program.

What Are the Performance Criteria?

    The performance criteria are the following:
    1. Risk-based Beach Evaluation and Classification--Describe the 
factors used in beach evaluation and classification process and how 
beaches are ranked as a result of the process. For example history of 
contamination, pollution sources, duration of swimming season, and 
number swimmers are a few factors which could be used to evaluate 
beaches.
    2. Sampling Design and Monitoring Implementation Plan--Develop a 
sampling design and implementation plan to address periods of 
recreation use of waters, nature and extent of use during those 
periods, proximity of waters to known point and non-point sources of 
pollution and effects of storm events on the waters.
    3. Monitoring Report Submission and Delegations--Develop a 
mechanism to collect relevant information and submit timely reports to 
EPA and document any delegations of monitoring

[[Page 39512]]

responsibilities to local governments. Reports will include sampling 
data and duration of water quality exceedance.
    4. Methods and Assessment Procedures--Develop detailed methods and 
assessment procedures to detect levels of pathogens and pathogen 
indicators that are harmful to human health. The assessment procedures 
shall identify short-term increases in pathogens and pathogen 
indicators.
    5. Public Notification and Risk Communication Plan--Develop an 
overall public notification and risk communication plan to describe 
notification efforts and measures to inform the public of potential 
risks associated with water contact in polluted waters.
    6. Measures to Notify EPA and Local Government--Identify measures 
for prompt communication of the occurrence, nature, location, 
pollutants, and extent of or likelihood of exceeding applicable water 
quality standards for pathogens and pathogen indicators.
    7. Measures to Notify the Public--Address the posting of signs or 
functional equivalent at beaches or similar points of access to give 
notice to the public which coastal recreation waters are not meeting or 
are not expected to meet applicable water quality standards for 
pathogens and pathogen indicators and on the risks of swimming in those 
waters.
    8. Notification Report Submission and Delegations--Develop a 
mechanism to collect relevant information and submit timely reports to 
EPA and document any delegations of public notification 
responsibilities to local governments. Reports will include actions to 
take when water quality standards are exceeded.
    9. Public Review of Program--Identify measures to provide an 
opportunity for the public to review the program through a process that 
provides for public notice and an opportunity for comment.

What Is the Purpose of This Notice?

    EPA solicits comments on all aspects of the draft performance 
criteria and guidance. In particular, EPA requests comments and 
information on whether:
    (1) EPA should define the scope of the program to provide a range 
of requirements and flexibility that would allow BEACH Act funding to 
support monitoring and notification at a greater number of beaches, or 
to establish very strict standards which would limit BEACH Act funding 
to a small number of priority beaches. The current draft would allow a 
greater number of beaches to be funded;
    (2) A State should use it's current water quality standards for 
pathogens and pathogen indicators as the basis for deciding to issue an 
advisory or close a beach, or should use EPA's new ambient water 
quality criteria as the threshold prior to their adoption into a 
State's water quality standards;
    (3) The risk-based evaluation and beach classification approach 
provides sufficient guidance and flexibility for a State to administer 
a BEACH Act monitoring and notification program;
    (4) EPA should provide more specificity on the definition of a 
beach;
    (5) EPA should provide more specificity on the required elements of 
a monitoring plan, and in particular the sampling location, frequency, 
and depth;
    (6) Only EPA's analytical promulgated methods should be used (once 
promulgated) to monitor pathogens at beaches, or should other 
scientifically valid methods be allowed. EPA has promulgated analytical 
methods for fecal and total coliform bacteria, and is considering to 
promulgate methods for enterococci and E. coli;
    (7) Predictive methods (e.g., water quality or empirical models) 
can be used to issue or remove advisories or closures;
    (8) EPA should provide more specificity on the required elements of 
a notification plan, and in particular posting signs or functional 
equivalents, measures to report water quality exceedances to EPA, State 
agencies, beach managers, and the public; and
    (9) A State should require an advisory or closure for any 
exceedance of a water quality standard, or may it allow for immediate 
re-sampling to verify the initial sample.

Is There Other Related Information?

    EPA will host five outreach sessions to explain the document and 
answer questions about it. These sessions are in Wilmington, DE on July 
31, San Diego, CA on August 3, Jacksonville, FL on August 21, New 
Orleans, LA on August 23, Chicago, IL on August 23. These meetings were 
announced in the Federal Register on July 20, 2001 and on EPA's website 
at http://www.epa.gov/ost/beaches/meetings/.

How Can You Submit Comments?

    You may submit comments by mail, e-mail, or delivered by hand to 
the addresses shown in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. EPA will 
not accept facsimiles (faxes). If you mail or hand deliver comments, 
please send an original and three copies of your comments and 
enclosures (including references). If you want receipt of your comments 
acknowledged, you must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You 
may also submit your comments by sending an e-mail to [email protected] 
or by disk. If you do, you must submit electronic comments as an ASCII 
file, or a WordPerfect 5.1, WordPerfect 6.1, or WordPerfect 8 file 
avoiding the use of special characters and any form on encryption, and 
identify these comments by the docket number W-01-08 on the subject 
line. You may file electronic comments on this notice at many Federal 
Depository Libraries. You should not send confidential business 
information by e-mail. The information received in response to this 
notice will be filed under docket number W-01-08, and include 
referenced documents as well as printed, paper versions of electronic 
comments. The record is available for inspection from 9 to 4 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays at the Water Docket, 
EB57, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters, 401 M St., 
Washington, DC. For access to docket materials, please call (202) 260-
3027 to schedule an appointment.

    Dated: July 26, 2001.
Geoffrey H. Grubbs,
Director, Office of Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 01-19150 Filed 7-30-01; 8:45 am]
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