INDIANA – As Memorial Day marked the official start of beach season, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is reminding beachgoers to plan ahead with the help of IDEM’s BeachAlert tool. BeachAlert allows users to receive daily updates on beach conditions and potential closures.
BeachAlert allows residents to sign up for text and email notifications about beach advisories and closures due to bacteria levels. More than 35 beaches participate in the program, providing status updates on beach conditions. BeachAlert also allows users to check if their favorite beaches are under a contamination advisory or closure, check water sample results, and find out information on the organization responsible for monitoring the beach.
Users can view advisories or closures by visiting the IDEM BeachAlert webpage at portal.idem.IN.gov/BeachAlert or by signing up for automated email and text notifications at on.IN.gov/idemsubscribe. Select Mobile Beach Alerts, along with any other topics of interest.
This month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) announced $205,000 in grant funding to Indiana to monitor water quality at beaches. This funding is authorized by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act and advances EPA’s goals of enhancing cooperative federalism and ensuring that every American has access to clean and safe water.
For details, visit: epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-provides-975-million-states-monitor-water-quality-beaches-and-protect-swimmers.
The most common cause of beach closures is elevated levels of E. Coli, the indicator bacteria used to determine potential human health risks in beach recreational waters. Using guidelines established by the U.S. EPA, IDEM requires that either an Advisory or Closure be issued at a beach whenever a single sample result exceeds 235 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100 milliliters (mL). To help determine our beaches’ E. coli levels, IDEM works with local organizations to perform water quality monitoring and notification activities at participating beaches.
Any sample result exceeding Indiana’s Recreational Water Quality Standard of 235 cfu/100ml requires the local beach manager to post an alert, which is published to IDEM’s BeachAlert portal. IDEM’s BeachAlert portal contains information about Indiana’s coastal and inland beaches.
Beach managers notify the public about beach water quality by posting beach signage that alerts beachgoers about water contamination advisories and beach closures. They also post E. coli sampling results, water contamination advisories, and beach closures on IDEM BeachAlert. For more information on the Lake Michigan Beach Program, visit beaches.IN.gov.
