An Alternative Approach to Water Regulations for Public Health Protection at Bathing Beaches

Table 2

Possible sampling strategies for the study site. The choice of sampling time and place depends upon which source (shoreline or offshore) is considered to be more strongly associated with human health.

	Target background levels for study site
	Highest background Enterococci levels	Lowest background Enterococci levels
Primary source of Enterococci that would be measured	Microbes from shoreline	Microbes from offshore sources not from shoreline sand
Sampling strategy	During morning, near peak high tide, or after rainfall and as close as possible to the shoreline.	During noon and afternoon, after peak low tide, avoiding rain events, and sampling offshore.