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BeachGrade

Fact-Checking Policy

Last updated: June 2026

Every number on beachgrade.org is meant to be traceable to a primary public record. This policy describes where our facts come from and how we check them before they are published.

Primary sources only

BeachGrade builds its pages from the U.S. EPA BEACON (BEACH Act) program and the Water Quality Portal (WQX/STORET). We do not republish second-hand summaries, scraped aggregations, or unattributed figures. Each page cites the dataset it draws from and links back to the source so any reader can verify a figure independently.

No invented numbers, no synthetic data

If a value is not present in the underlying public data, it does not appear on beachgrade.org. We never fabricate statistics to fill a gap, and we never use model-generated estimates in place of reported figures. Where the data is genuinely missing, we say so rather than guess.

How figures are verified

  • Faithful processing. Data is fetched directly from the source, then transformed with documented, repeatable code — not hand-transcribed, where transcription errors would creep in.
  • Source-of-truth checks. Derived values (rankings, grades, composite scores) are computed from the source fields using stated formulas, so the inputs to any number remain auditable. For each beach we pull the EPA BEACON inventory and advisory history, then gather bacteria samples (Enterococcus at saltwater and Great Lakes beaches, E. coli at other freshwater beaches) from the Water Quality Portal at nearby monitoring stations. The Beach Safety Grade is the multi-year share of samples that exceeded the EPA Beach Action Value (104 CFU/100 mL for Enterococcus, 235 for E. coli): under 3% earns an A, over 25% an F. A letter grade is only assigned with at least 20 samples over two or more years; beaches below that are marked “not yet rated” rather than guessed at.
  • Sanity bounds. Cross-cutting totals and outliers are checked against known ranges to catch unit errors, duplicates, and mis-scaled values before they reach a page.
  • Dating. Every dataset page carries a “Last updated” date so readers know how current a figure is.

The limits of what we check

BeachGrade verifies that our pages faithfully represent the U.S. EPA BEACON (BEACH Act) program and the Water Quality Portal (WQX/STORET). We do not independently audit the issuing agency’s collection methods, and we cannot guarantee the source itself is free of error. Source records may be incomplete, reported late, or restated after publication. We treat the primary record as authoritative and follow its corrections — always verify a consequential figure against the original source before acting on it.

Found an error?

Tell us and we will fix it. See our Corrections Policy for how to report an issue and what happens next, and our Editorial Policy for how our content is produced.