Methodology

Name: Ocean98 beach attributes
Creator: Ocean98
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

Source

Data comes from the EPA BEACON 2.0 Beach Attributes report (beacon.epa.gov), downloaded as CSV from the interactive report. Last reviewed October 2026.

Processing

One row per Beach ID, using the latest attribute year available for that beach. Most rows are from 2026; a few beaches only have older records, and their attribute year is shown on the page.
State and county totals are counted from those rows: 3,699 beaches, 31 jurisdictions and 294 counties.
Beach names are often uppercase in the source. We convert them to title case for display only. Identifiers and URLs are unchanged.
Blank means not reported. We never invent, estimate or fill in missing values, and we hide a field rather than show zero.

Limitations

The dataset is beach attributes only. It does not include water quality sample results, advisories or closures, so Ocean98 never reports current conditions. The source report caps exports at 100,000 rows, so history for some jurisdictions may be incomplete; pages use only the latest row per beach.

Maps

State and county maps plot reported start coordinates. Beach maps use OpenStreetMap with a marker at the start coordinate. Beaches without coordinates have no map.

Site notes

Microsoft Clarity and Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster verification will be added at go-live.