Water Quality

Rivers, Lakes, and Estuaries               Water of Long Island Sound               Warming and Rising Waters               Drinking Water

Swimming

 

 

Coastal swimmers saw considerably more beach actions in 2021.

 

There were 377 beach action days in 2021, 267 (71 percent) of which were closures and 110 (29 percent) were advisories. Of the 377 beach action days, 59 percent were “preemptory actions” while 41 percent were due to elevated levels of bacteria.⁴⁰ There were ten days during the reporting period where rain totals exceeded one inch, with four of those days exceeding 2.4 inches of rain. The chart above displays both closings and advisories at Connecticut’s public beaches since 2011, which from a water quality perspective are functional equivalents. This is different than prior years when only closings were displayed. The beach-specific advisories or closings* are issued by the reporting state or local government entity.

Because the number of beaches varies by county, the Council utilizes a ratio of beach action days (closures and advisories) to the number of reporting beaches in each county to illustrate the relative impact that pollution has had on coastal recreation waters. Typically, the western half of the coastline, which has more impervious surfaces, sees the most beach actions.

<sub>Goal: The goal for keeping beaches open is to reduce the number of beach closings in half by 2035 (from 2014, with the number for 2014 calculated using a five-year rolling average). This goal was identified in the 2015 edition of the Long Island Sound Study's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan.

Technical Note: *During a beach closure, water conditions are deemed unsafe for swimmers and other users. A beach advisory is a warning and users decide whether they wish to risk going into the water. An action can be based on a model or policy and not be a monitored beach. The data, derived from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Beach Advisory and Closing Online Notification (BEACON2) system, includes information on pollution occurrences in coastal recreation waters for 72 reporting beaches along the Connecticut shoreline in 2021. The high number of beach actions in 2011 may be attributed to Tropical Storm Irene. “Preemptory actions” might be issued to inform the public of possible fecal contamination, based on past experience, prior to receiving confirmation of the water quality sample from the laboratory.</sub> 

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⁴⁰ _{EPA, Beach Advisory and Closing On-line Notification; watersgeo.epa.gov/beacon2/reports.html}