Bathing Beaches Monitoring Program
3 Capitol Hill, Room 203
Providence, RI 02908-5097
(401) 222-2749
Bonnie Blair - Beach Coordinator bonnie.blair@health.ri.gov
For questions or comments on the Bathing Beaches Monitoring
Program site, please e-mail
RIBeaches@health.ri.gov
Bacterial Water Quality Monitoring at Upper Narragansett Bay Bathing Beaches
A USEPA EMPACT Project
Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking
In 1999, the Rhode Island Department of Health's Beach Monitoring Program was granted funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through a program called EMPACT. This program was a new approach to working with communities to collect, manage, and present real-time environmental information, so that the public could make more informed decisions prior to going out to beaches during the summer months.
The project's four main goals to be achieved by the conclusion of 2000 were:
1. To develop a comprehensive beach management program through frequent water sampling at swimming beaches in upper Narragansett Bay.
2. To communicate the information collected through this monitoring program to the public in a timely, easily accessible, and effective format.
3. To investigate faster and more specific methods of evaluating water quality, and possibly decide upon a new test as the state standard, and
4. To collect specific rainfall data for use in developing a beach closure model based on the amount of rainfall/sewage discharge.
Through these four goals, the intention was to develop a more thorough knowledge of water quality dynamics within Narragansett Bay.
