Elk Neck State Park North East River

North East, Maryland

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This is the main beach at Elk Neck State Park, a park overlooking Chesapeake Bay. This sandy beach is a great spot for a swim. The water is shallow but swim at your own risk as there are no lifeguards on duty. You can also enjoy a picnic at one of the beach's many picnic areas (some have grills). For your convenience, there is also a restroom, showers, and a park store (open during the summer season). After your picnic, launch your canoe or kayak from the boat launch area just north of the beach or relax in the shade. Fishing is not permitted at the swimming area. Pets are only permitted before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on August 24th, 2020. The Swim Guide updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on September 1st, 2020 at 10:08 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Sampling season runs from May - August each year. Samples are analyzed for entercocci bacteria, with results reported as the geometric mean of the number of "colony forming units" (CFU) per 100 ml of water for three samples collected at the beach each date. High priority beaches are sampled weekly, medium priority beaches biweekly and low priority beaches monthly. Maryland Department of Environment Regulations establish the following limits for bacteria:

A beach is marked Green when single sample results show enterococci counts below 104 units/ 100 ml of water for high and medium priority beaches or 158 cfu / 100ml of water for low priority beaches.

A beach is marked Red when single sample results have enterococci counts above 104 units/ 100 ml of water for high and medium priority beaches or when the geometric mean of all samples collected over 30 days is above 35 cfu / 100 ml of water.

A beach is marked Grey when reliable or up-to-date information is not available.

Sample results are available at: http://www.cecilcountyhealth.org/ccdhxx/ccdhBeaches.asp

Maryland Healthy Beaches notification system has partnered with Google Earth to send updates. However, Swim Guide prefers to contact the Health Department directly as we are unable to determine the monitoring schedule Google Earth uses.

Water Quality Graph