On the heels of Obama's slashed budget for BEACH Act programs for coastal water quality monitoring, the Portland Chapter is hosting Oregon Beach Monitoring Program staff Rebecca Hillwig and Tara Chetock this Tuesday to discuss the past and future of this important program for coastal recreational users. The presentation will be part of this month's regular chapter meeting this Tuesday, March 11th, 7:30pm at the SE Lucky Lab on Hawthorne.
The BEACH Act - “Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act” - funds Oregon's Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) in it's entirety, and the water quality criteria and standards associated with the Act were adopted in Oregon in October of 2000. The Act provides grant money to states to monitor coastal recreation waters and to provide for public notification. Without this funding, Oregon's program simply would not exist. States were required to adopt beach water quality criteria in April 2004 and OBMP started sampling that summer. Learn more about what's in store for Oregon, what we've learned from past sampling and how you can help support reinstating the federal allocations for this important program.
