Updated 2026-07-13

Delaware beach water quality

Delaware has 25 public beaches in the EPA monitoring dataset, 24 of them with enough bacteria samples to grade. 11 earn an A for consistently clean water, while 4 grade an F for frequently exceeding the safe-swimming limit. Full ranking below.

A 11

B 2

C 4

D 3

F 4

Grade	Beach	County	% over limit	Samples	Advisory
A	Key Box Road Beach (Delaware Seashore State Park)	Sussex	0%	129	Excellent
A	Ocean Beach Near Gordons Pond (Cape Henlopen State Park)	Sussex	0%	89	Excellent
A	Rehoboth Beach - Queen Street	Sussex	0%	89	Excellent
A	South Indian River Inlet Beach (De Seashore State Park)	Sussex	0%	86	Excellent
A	Dewey Beach - Swedes Street	Sussex	0.4%	256	Excellent
A	Lewes Beach South (Johnnie Walker Beach)	Sussex	0.9%	232	Excellent
A	South Bethany Beach	Sussex	1.1%	95	Excellent
A	Fenwick Beach	Sussex	1.3%	226	Excellent
A	Cape Henlopen Main Beach (Cape Henlopen State Park)	Sussex	2.3%	261	Excellent
A	North Indian River Inlet Beach (De Seashore State Park)	Sussex	2.4%	167	Excellent
A	Rehoboth Beach - Virginia Avenue	Sussex	2.6%	266	Excellent
B	Deauville Beach (Cape Henlopen State Park)	Sussex	3.3%	90	Good
B	Lewes Beach North (Savannah Beach)	Sussex	5.5%	217	Good
C	Prime Hook Beach	Sussex	7.6%	92	Fair
C	Fenwick Island State Park Beach	Sussex	9.8%	307	Fair
C	Conquest Road Beach (Delaware Seashore State Park)	Sussex	10.3%	263	Fair
C	3 R's Road Beach (Delaware Seashore State Park)	Sussex	11.7%	145	Fair
D	Holt's Landing	Sussex	16.9%	354	Poor
D	Broadkill Beach	Sussex	18.7%	187	Poor
D	Bethany Beach	Sussex	19.8%	278	Poor
F	Rehoboth Beach - Rehoboth Avenue	Sussex	28.2%	39	Failing
F	Tower Road Beach - Oceanside (De Seashore State Park)	Sussex	31.6%	263	Failing
F	Dewey Beach - Dagsworthy Street	Sussex	32.1%	56	Failing
F	Slaughter Beach	Sussex	35.5%	279	Failing

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