Beach Grants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awards grants under authority of the BEACH Act to eligible states, territories and Tribes with beaches on ocean and Great Lakes coasts to develop and implement programs to monitor their beaches and notify the public when it is not safe to swim. During each swimming season, state and local health and environmental protection agencies monitor the quality of water at the nation’s beaches. When bacteria levels in the water are too high, these agencies notify the public by posting warnings or closing the beach. The grants help local authorities monitor beach water quality, notify the public of conditions that may be unsafe for swimming, and submit data to the EPA for inclusion in a publicly accessible system, BEACON.
To be eligible for BEACH Act grants, states, territories and Tribes must have coastal recreational waters (including the Great Lakes) adjacent to beaches or similar points of access used by the public. They also need to have EPA-approved numeric recreational water quality standards for pathogens or pathogen indicators for the coastal waters, and they need to meet 11 performance criteria for implementing the monitoring, assessment, and notification parts of the beach program. There are currently 30 states, five territories and five Tribes that are eligible to apply for beach grant funds.
Three factors influence the allocations for awarding grant totals up to $10M:
- The length of the beach season;
- the number of miles of shoreline; and
- The populations of coastal counties.
If the grants total more than $10M, then these two factors are considered for the amount above $10M:
- Number of miles of beaches; and
- Beach use.
The EPA initially announced the formula for calculating grant allocations in the Federal Register on March 31, 2003 (refer to 68 FR 15446) and published a supplemental allocation formula for grant totals greater than $10M on January 11, 2010 (refer to 75 FR 1373).
The EPA has awarded more than $226 million in grants for the beach monitoring and notification programs since it started awarding grants in 2001. Table 1 demonstrates the amount the agency has awarded the past few years:
| Fiscal Year | Grant Total |
|---|---|
| 2024 | $9,750,000 |
| 2023 | $10,619,000 |
| 2022 | $10,119,000 |
| 2021 | $9,619,000 |
For a breakdown of how the grants were allocated among states, territories and Tribes, and the required performance criteria, refer to:
- Beach Grants from Fiscal Year 2001 through 2024 (pdf)
- National Beach Guidance and Required Performance Criteria for Grants
- Data Reporting Requirements under Beach Act Grants
Additional Information
Contacts for the EPA, state Tribe and territory beach programs
Information Collection Request
Every three years, the EPA updates the reporting requirements for the BEACH Act Grants Information Collection Request (ICR). As a grant condition, grant recipients are required to collect and submit beach monitoring and notification information to the EPA. Collection of this information allows the EPA to evaluate the extent to which grant recipients fulfill the requirements of the BEACH Act.
- Most recent Information Collection Request submitted to OMB (April 28, 2023)
- Latest approved Information Collection Request (May 31, 2019)
- ICR history
Office of Inspector General Report
This report by the EPA’s OIG evaluates how the agency grants provided under the BEACH Act assist states, territories, and Tribes in monitoring the water quality of coastal recreation waters and notifying the public of contamination events.
- Report at a Glance
- Full Report (Report No. 18-P-0071, January 18, 2018)