Guide
Beach water: who samples, and what the colors mean
Checked September 29, 2026 against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s beach monitoring map layer and its program page.
The beach tile shows what the Coastal Alabama Beach Monitoring Program publishes for the 25 sites it samples for Enterococcus bacteria. The program is run by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). The tile gives each site’s level and the day of its last sample. This page says how the tile reads that, and what it cannot tell you.
Where a site is at Condition Red, stay out of the water. It means repeat samples there were over the limit and a public health advisory is up.
After heavy rain, wait. Runoff reaches the bays and the Gulf in hours, and the last sample was taken before it.
What the tile shows
The tile reads ADEM’s own map layer, one row for each site: its level as a code, and the day of the sample. The three levels are the layer’s own legend, and what each means is from ADEM’s program page. The limit in all three is the EPA’s threshold of 104 Enterococci per 100 ml of water.
- Normal (green): the latest sample was at or under 104.
- Elevated (yellow): the latest sample was over 104. There may be an increased risk of illness in the water. ADEM samples again before any advisory.
- Condition Red (red): repeat testing was over 104 again, and a public health advisory is issued.
- The words are ADEM’s. A code the tile does not recognise shows as Check, never as clear. A site missing from ADEM’s layer shows “No sample listed”.
- Sampling slows in the cool months. ADEM samples twice a week, weekly or every two weeks from June through September, depending on the site, and once a month the rest of the year, so a sample can be weeks old. The tile always prints its date.
- Each site is filed under the nearest board town. The Perdido Bay sites up the bay toward Lillian, the Dog River and the Fowl River are more than eight miles from any town on the board; they are filed under Orange Beach, Mobile and Coden.
On September 29, 2026 every site was Normal. The newest samples were from September 24; the site at Volanta Avenue in Fairhope had last been sampled on July 15.
Every site ADEM samples
| Site | Nearest board town, county | Sampled |
|---|---|---|
| Dauphin Island Public Beach | Dauphin Island, Mobile | Yes |
| Dauphin Island East End | Dauphin Island, Mobile | Yes |
| Fowl River at Highway 193 | Coden, Mobile | Yes |
| Dog River at the Alba Club | Mobile, Mobile | Yes |
| May Day Park | Daphne, Baldwin | Yes |
| Volanta Avenue | Fairhope, Baldwin | Yes |
| Fairhope Public Beach | Fairhope, Baldwin | Yes |
| Orange Street Pier | Fairhope, Baldwin | Yes |
| Camp Beckwith, Weeks Bay | Magnolia Springs, Baldwin | Yes |
| Mary Ann Nelson Beach | Magnolia Springs, Baldwin | Yes |
| Fort Morgan Public Beach | Fort Morgan, Baldwin | Yes |
| Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge | Gulf Shores, Baldwin | Yes |
| Little Lagoon Pass | Gulf Shores, Baldwin | Yes |
| Gulf Shores Public Beach | Gulf Shores, Baldwin | Yes |
| Gulf State Park Pavilion | Gulf Shores, Baldwin | Yes |
| Cotton Bayou | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Florida Point | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Alabama Point | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Orange Beach Waterfront Park, Wolf Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Bear Point, Arnica Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Pirate’s Cove, Arnica Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Camp Dixie, Perdido Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Escambia Avenue, Perdido Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Spanish Cove, Perdido Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
| Kee Avenue, Perdido Bay | Orange Beach, Baldwin | Yes |
Anywhere else on the Alabama shore is not sampled. A beach nobody samples is not a clean beach. It is a beach with no result.
What it cannot tell you
The program tests for Enterococcus, a sign of sewage and runoff. It does not test for Vibrio, which lives naturally in warm salt and brackish water. The Department of Public Health’s coastal conditions page covers it.
Sources
- Alabama Department of Environmental Management, beach monitoring map layer (BeachMonitoringLocations) — the site rows the tile reads, and each site’s latest result sheet
- ADEM and ADPH, Coastal Alabama Beach Monitoring Program — what green, yellow and red mean, and how often each site is sampled
- Alabama Department of Public Health, Beach Monitoring Program