Maine Healthy Beaches

The Maine Healthy Beaches Program (MHB) is a partnership between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and local municipalities/state parks. The program is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000. MHB is a statewide effort to monitor water quality and protect public health at Maine's participating coastal saltwater beaches. There are over 60 participating beaches in the program spanning approximately 200 miles from Kittery to Acadia National Park.

The Maine Healthy Beaches Program was established to ensure that Maine's saltwater beaches remain safe and clean. The program brings together communities to perform standardized monitoring of beach water quality, notifying the public of potential health risks and educating residents and visitors on what they can do to help keep Maine's beaches healthy.

How do I know if it's safe to swim at my local beach?

There are several ways to determine whether it's safe to swim at a beach.

• Check the Current Beach Status to see if the beach is monitored by the MHB program and for the current beach status. If an advisory or closure is issued for the beach, it will be posted on the webpage.
• To know if there is an active water quality advisory or closure while at the beach, look for any advisory (orange: Elevated Bacteria or yellow: Precautionary Rainfall) or closure (red) signs or other signs posted at the beach entrance or on the lifeguard stands. If there are no advisories (orange or yellow) or closures (red) posted, but there is a Maine Healthy Beaches sign, this indicates that the beach is being monitored by the MHB program, and there is no active advisory or closure.
• For additional information about a beach and how often it is monitored, contact the local beach manager for that town or state park. For more information about the MHB program, contact MHB program staff.