On the heels of Obama’s slashed budget for BEACH Act programs for coastal water quality monitoring, the Coos Bay Chapter is hosting a presentation on Thursday April 3rd, 6pm at the Broadway Rock Hall (next to Sharkbites) to discuss the past and future of this important program for coastal recreational users. Oregon’s Field Manager for Surfrider Foundation, Charlie Plybon, will present on the current efforts to reinstate this funding and how it relates to Oregon’s current coastal water quality efforts along the coast, the health of surfers and beachgoers and how you can be involved in monitoring and pollution solutions.

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. Fortunately, the Coos Bay Chapter runs their own Blue Water Task Force water quality monitoring program and is looking to expand to a second lab in Bandon! 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 as well as getting involved in the chapter’s volunteer water quality monitoring program.