Our Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication & Health, or BEACH, program ensures that marine water is safe to swim and play in and informs the public if water doesn't meet swimming standards.
Out of the 59 beaches sampled in 2022, 91.5 percent were considered passing beaches. This is a 14.5 percent increase in passing beaches from 2021. A beach is considered passing if it has no more than one sampling event that exceeds the swimming standard.
You can look up your local beach and see how clean it was during 2022 with county-by-county links below. Also, you can compare 2022 to previous years and to overall averages with our summary bar chart below.
Keeping beaches safe
From Memorial Day through Labor Day in 2022, our scientists and county and local BEACH partners sampled 60 public beaches on marine waters for bacterial contamination. We collected water samples from high-use beaches weekly or biweekly to test for enterococcus, a type of fecal bacteria. High enterococcus levels are linked to swimmer illness. This information helps health officials issue swimming advisories.
The Makah Tribe BEACH Program resumed sampling in November 2022.
Water quality — beach by beach
Click on the county links below for more details on water quality at local swimming beaches:
Beach water quality summary 2022
In 2022, the Washington BEACH Program sampled 59 beaches. The figure below shows that in 2022, 91.5% of beaches were considered "passing" beaches. Passing beaches have less than two exceedances of the swimming standard. This is above the yearly average (2004-2021) of 86% passing beaches. The Makah Tribe only sampled from November to December in 2022 and is, therefore, not included in this graph.