[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY-2/23/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

February 23, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

Water testing left high and dry

State funds evaporate for coastal program; county not filling gap

San Diego Union-Tribune – 2/23/09

By Mike Lee

 

MONITORING SCHEDULE

April 1 through Oct. 31: The state generally requires weekly water-quality testing at beaches that have more than 50,000 visitors a year and are located next to storm drains that flow during the summer. In past years, San Diego County tested 55 beach sites and reviewed the results of tests conducted by wastewater agencies at 41 other spots.

 

Nov. 1 through March 31: Several counties in California run scaled-down beach monitoring programs during the offseason for beachgoers. San Diego County typically took weekly samples at 13 or 14 sites and reviewed information from the wastewater agencies during this period.

SOURCES: San Diego County; State of California

 

San Diego County disbanded all routine coastal water monitoring in October after losing state funding and has done little to revive the widely heralded program.

Unlike other regions that kept up their testing by tapping budgets or obtaining donations from environmental groups, county supervisors haven't sought alternatives and some were unaware of the money problem.

 

County officials initially told The San Diego Union-Tribune that they couldn't restart the program without money from the state, which has not made any commitments. By Friday, they said they were trying to launch a much smaller effort and hope to pay for it with a long-delayed, $25,000 federal grant.

 

With the funding uncertain, they didn't know how long they could operate the downsized program. Before October, San Diego County's decade-old program was one of the largest monitoring efforts in California. It received the biggest annual state grant – more than $300,000 – in recent years.

 

The lack of full-scale testing is particularly troublesome because California's peak beach-going season officially begins April 1.

 

“Surfers and swimmers are being left to enter the ocean at their own risk because of the county's lack of action,” said Mark Gold, head of the pollution watchdog group Heal the Bay in Santa Monica. The nonprofit publishes beach report cards and weekly online reports about water quality in California.

 

Ventura County also has abandoned regular coastal water testing. Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Barbara counties found ways to maintain their programs, Heal the Bay said.

 

In Santa Barbara County, the environmental group Channelkeeper and the city of Santa Barbara have taken weekly water samples at 12 of the county's most popular beaches since November and posted the results online. The work is partly covered by discretionary funds from a county supervisor.

 

Statewide beach monitoring faltered in September, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited a growing budget deficit in cutting $984,000 for the work. San Diego County's environmental health officials closed their program in early October and posted a note about it online.

 

State officials reversed course a month later, pledging to issue bonds to pay for the testing.

 

But California hasn't been able to sell those bonds because of its budget troubles, so the county Department of Environmental Health hasn't received any of the $302,000 it was promised. The county also hasn't obtained the federal grant because of a contract dispute.

 

Supervisor Greg Cox said Thursday he “wasn't even aware there was a delay” in getting the federal money, so his office didn't consider the use of discretionary funds. A day later, his spokesman said Cox had been told about the financial problems and that his initial comments referred to the situation as it was weeks ago.

Cox said he hoped state payments for coastal water monitoring would soon resume because California has passed a new budget.

 

Supervisor Dianne Jacob, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, had not learned about the funding problem until the Union-Tribune called, her spokeswoman said.

Jacob referred other questions to Cox, who lobbied for the state funding at a Nov. 4 meeting in Sacramento.

 

Since the late 1990s, California has reimbursed coastal counties for conducting routine beach water tests and other related monitoring. In recent years, San Diego County has gauged water quality at 55 beach sites and reviewed outside data submitted for 41 more spots from April 1 through Oct. 31.

For the rest of the year, when there were fewer beachgoers, it relied on $25,000 in federal money and a variety of other county sources to run its program at a reduced level. The offseason cost was about $40,000.

 

During the November meeting, the state's water quality agency approved a plan to continue testing during the peak beach season. It would tap $1.97 million in state bonds to pay for the work in 2009 and 2010.

 

At the time, Cox praised the decision and said that “at least we bought some time” to find permanent funding.

“If we can't guarantee to the public that we have clean beaches, we have some big problems,” he said.

 

But the financing patch never materialized.

 

The bonds weren't issued and “there was no cash in the state's bank to pay” the counties, said William L. Rukeyser, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board.

 

The agency isn't sure when, or if, the bonds will be sold.

 

At Heal the Bay, Gold said he's working with state officials on other funding options such as using money from California's water pollution fines to pay for the monitoring.

 

San Diego County's officials said they hope to use the $25,000 federal grant to start the winter beach monitoring program next week even though the season is almost over.

 

The county continues to conduct special testing for two categories: when there is a reported sewage spill or when storms bring contaminated runoff to frequently polluted beaches, said Mark McPherson, a top official at the Department of Environmental Health. Those sites include South County beaches that are fouled with sewage from the Tijuana River after heavy rains.

 

Imperial Beach Mayor Jim Janney said the lack of county testing has forced the city to depend on its veteran lifeguards and a program with oceanographers from the University of California San Diego to warn the public about pollution.

 

“We are not going to let the fact that the state is not paying put the public in jeopardy,” he said. #

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/22/1n22quality00125-water-testing-left-high-and-dry/?uniontrib

 

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