Find Information about a Particular U.S. Beach
Find info about U.S. beaches:
- Find out if the Water Quality of a Beach is Monitored
- Find out which Beaches are Closed Now or have Health Advisories Now
- Find out which Beaches were Closed or under Health Advisories in the Recent Past
- Read Reports the EPA has Released
Find out if the Water Quality of a Beach is Monitored
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains a list of beaches (and similar points of access to coastal recreation waters) used by the public, as required by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act. This National List of Beaches provides information whether a beach that is included in a water quality monitoring and public notification program is monitored or not, or if it is not part of the program (those are shown as “Tier 4” in the list). You can select a jurisdiction’s name to find information on individual beaches. The list contains the most recent information that states, territories and Tribes with coastal and Great Lakes beaches have submitted to the EPA. You can also access pdf versions of the list from 2004, 2008, and 2010.
Find out which Beaches are Closed Now or have Health Advisories Now
States, Tribes, territories and local governments decide whether to open or close a beach.
Find out which Beaches were Closed or under Health Advisories in the Recent Past
The EPA’s BEACON (Beach Advisory and Closing Online Notification) system is a national database that contains beach monitoring and notification data reported by states, territories and Tribes. BEACON can produce maps to show the location of more than 6,000 beaches covered by the BEACH Act, and the related water quality monitoring stations, on either road maps or satellite base maps. BEACON can generate reports and trends at the national, state/Tribal/territorial and local levels. The BEACON 2.0 User's Guide describes how to use the online BEACON system to obtain reported beach monitoring and notification data.
States, territories and Tribes receiving beach grants submit information on beach monitoring and closures and advisories to the EPA, but they are only required to submit that information once a year, although some report more frequently. Therefore, BEACON has information about the previous year and earlier, but it does not have current information about advisories or closings.
Read Reports the EPA has Released
Annual Swimming Season Reports
The EPA releases an annual report that contains national-level statistics of beach closings and advisories that states, territories and Tribes issued during the swimming season as well as beach data trends over several years.
You can also create a report for any year from 2014 to the present that uses the most up-to-date information in the EPA’s database (that may have been updated after our reports were released) using the dynamic report.
- 2023 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
- 2022 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
- 2021 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
- 2020 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
- 2019 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
- 2018 Beach Swimming Season Report (pdf)
Historical Swimming Season Report Information
- Data trends for the 2013-2017 swimming seasons are contained in the 2018 report.
- Reports for the 1999-2012 swimming seasons are available upon request by contacting the EPA using the Contact Us link.
Implementing the BEACH Act of 2000: Reports to Congress
Every four years the EPA submits a report to Congress on the progress that states, Tribes, territories, the EPA, and other federal agencies have made on implementing the BEACH Act, as required in 33 U.S.C. 1375a.