What is the BEACH Act?
The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act was passed by Congress in 2000 to protect public health in coastal recreational waters. It established uniform criteria for testing, monitoring and notifying the public users of possible coastal recreation water problems. It also requires that states, in cooperation with EPA, develop and implement a program to monitor, for pathogens and pathogen indicators, coastal recreation waters 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. In July 2001, the Office of the Governor appointed the Texas General Land Office (GLO) as the lead state agency responsible for implementing the provisions of the BEACH Act, as they applied to the state, because of its existing Beach Watch Program. This program started in the late 1990s as a fledgling water-quality monitoring program funded by the Coastal Management Program. To date, the Tex
