Marine Beaches in Massachusetts
In 2000, the U.S. Congress enacted the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act to
improve the quality of coastal recreational waters. The BEACH Act seeks to reduce the risk of disease to
users of the Nation's marine recreational waters through the identification of high-risk beaches, identification
and mitigation of sources of pollution, and notification/risk communication to the public. In late 2001, the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) was awarded funding from the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (USEPA) that partially support Departmental efforts to develop a bathing beaches inventory and communicate
results of beach monitoring to the general public.
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