Beach Sample Results

Barnstable County’s samplers officially began sampling beaches and analyzing the samples for fecal bacteria levels in the laboratory on Monday, June 5th. Sampling occurs Monday through Thursday.

If any of the samples collected exceed the limit for fecal bacteria, the results will be posted on this page.

Beaches are sampled weekly, with the exception of any beaches that have received a variance from the state to be sampled monthly. Those beaches are specified for each town. Simply choose a town below to view the latest sampling dates and results.

It’s important to remember that this program monitors recreational water for fecal bacteria ONLY. For cyanobacteria information and monitoring results, please visit the Association to Preserve Cape Cod’s website. To learn more about Barnstable County’s role in the region’s cyanobacteria monitoring efforts, please visit Cyanobacteria Monitoring on Cape Cod – Barnstable County.

The following beaches have been reported to the local boards of health for posting due to high bacteria levels and are in the process of being re-tested:

The following beaches are being re-tested due to high bacteria levels. Results of re-testing will be available in 24 hours.

*These beaches are not designated as swimming areas by the town, yet people tend to swim in them nonetheless. The public should be aware that high bacteria levels are common in these areas due to stormwater runoff. Signs are posted at both locations.

In order for a beach to be reported to the local boards of health for posting due to high bacteria levels to swimming, the beach must have two consecutive bacterial exceedances on two consecutive days and/or consistently elevated bacteria levels over a period of time. When this happens, re-testing takes place daily until bacteria levels are shown to be below the Massachusetts standard for bacteria in bathing water (at which point the town health agent is notified and the beach can be reopened).

To check the status of cyanobacteria blooms on Cape Cod, visit the Association to Preserve Cape Cod at Cyanobacteria | Association to Preserve Cape Cod (apcc.org)>>>. To learn more about Barnstable County’s role cyanobacteria monitoring, please visit Cyanobacteria Monitoring on Cape Cod – Barnstable County>>>.

Hang in there! It may take a moment for the dashboard to load.

We’ve been working hard to improve our beach monitoring database to allow for quick and easy navigation. You can now interact with the data to zero in on the information most relevant to you.

Navigating the dashboard is easy; simply follow the steps indicated below.

Step 1: Select a town. Selected towns will appear highlighted in blue. You can select one town or all towns. The data window will appear empty until a selection is made. To deselect a town, simply click on it a second time and it will no longer appear highlighted in blue.

Step 2: Select a beach from the drop down in the bottom right-hand corner. Once you have selected a town(s), the beaches monitored for that town will appear on the list. To select a beach or beaches, simply click the squares to the left of the beach name. You can select one or multiple beaches.

Step 3: Select a date or dates from the tiles located at the bottom of the page. Once you make a selection, the tile will appear shaded black. NOTE: Once a beach is selected, the database will only show the dates that beach was sampled. Remember, we sample beaches either weekly or monthly as indicated in the table.

Filtering the Data

You can sort the data by clicking or hovering over the column headers and selecting the triangular arrows. For example, you can sort the data by date to show the newest samples first and the oldest samples last and vice versa. A right side up triangle will show older data first, while a second click will reveal an upside-down triangle, which indicates that newer data is shown first.

Please note! While our program does provide monitoring to semi-public beaches (homeowner’s associations, hotels, etc.), only public beaches are displayed here.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble seeing any aspect of the data, try hovering your finger or mouse over the dashboard and “scrolling” up, down, left, or right.

Text too small to read? If you are working at a desktop or laptop computer, press Ctrl + to zoom in. If you are viewing the data from a mobile phone, try the horizontal view.

Questions? Comments?

We want to hear from you! We’re constantly working to improve communication and information sharing with the public. Please let us know if you have any suggestions to help up improve this interactive data experience by emailing us at [email protected]!