Bathing Waters 2012

The publication of data on the state of the bathing waters answers the necessity to furnish data on sea quality to authorities and users as soon as possible, data emerging from the monitoring activity conducted by ARPAC in every bathing season.

Since the bathing season 2010, the quality control on bathing waters is no longer carried out, in accordance with the Presidential Decree 470/82, but it follows specific criteria fixed by the Ministerial Decree 30 March 2010, which enforces the principles and aims of the Legislative Decree 116/2008, which assimilates EU regulations. The new law defines new dispositions on the subject of monitoring, classification, management of the quality of bathing waters and information to the public.

The fitness for swimming of the coastal areas for the bathing season 2012 has been defined according to the new law, by the regional deliberation n. 808 of 30.12.2011 (published in the Official Journal of Regione Campania n. 2 of 10/01/2012), based on the controls carried out by ARPAC from 1 April to 30 September of the past four bathing seasons (2008-2009-2010-2011).

Therefore, the suitability decision for the beginning of the bathing season 2012 expressed in the deliberation comes from the statistical analysis not only of the last year monitored, but also of the previous three bathing seasons, and it is based on the results of only 2 bacteriological parameters: Escherichia coli and intestinal Enterococcus. These parameters have been considered by the World Health Organization more specific indicators of fecal contamination than those (total coliform, fecal coliform, fecal treptococcus, salmonella, enterovirus, pH, phenols,surfactants, mineral oils, dissolved oxygen, colour and transparency) tested with the old regulation, the Presidential Decree 470/82.

The bathing waters have been classified, therefore, according to quality classes provided for by the law: Poor, Sufficient, Good, Excellent, and reported in a table in the attachments of the Decree of the Regional Government n. 808 of 30.12.2011. It is necessary to specify that the waters “not suitable for bathing” in the beginning of the bathing season 2012 are both those of “poor” class according to the Legislative Decree 116/08 (new regulation) and those resulting in art. 7 under the Presidential Decree 470/82 (old regulation), regardless of their classification.

For each bathing water classified as “poor”, according to the Legislative Decree 116/08, the Municipal Administrations will have to take the following measures at the opening of the bathing season:

1. appropriate management measures, included bathing ban, in order to prevent bathers from exposure to pollution;

2. individuation of the causes and the reasons for the failed achievement of the “sufficient” quality status;

3. appropriate measures to prevent, reduce or eliminate the causes of pollution;

4. guarantee information to the public.

For the waters that are not classified as “poor”, but forbidden for bathing according to the art. 7 of the old regulation (Presidential Decree 470/82), it is necessary to underline that in application of the Ministerial Decree 30.3.2010, art.2 paragraph 5, “they will be able to be reopened only following four samples taken fortnightly, starting from April, with test results below those indicated in attachment A, subject to demonstration of the achieved reclamation through notification of the improvement measures realized”.

In the graphical representation of the ARPAC website, for an immediate clarity, the bathing areas at the beginning of the bathing season 2012 are indicated symbolically with coloured strokes according to their classification (Red=Poor; Yellow=Sufficient; Green= Good; Blue=Excellent), while the tested spots falling within their areas remain indicated by blue flags if suitable for bathing and red flags if not suitable. The new or newly classified areas are in white.

Visit the pages dedicated to bathing on the ARPAC website click here.