Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 21, 2009
4. Water Quality –
Bay Area beaches score high on water quality
The San Francisco Chronicle
The
Report card: S.D. beaches not so great in wet weather
The
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Bay Area beaches score high on water quality
The San Francisco Chronicle – 5/21/09
By Jane Kay
It's safe to go into the water, according to a new health report card for
Most beaches in the
Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica watchdog of Golden State beaches, issued the report card Wednesday, hailing a fine year for swimming and boating.
"If you go to Bay Area beaches, you were generally swimming in the best water quality in recent years," said James Alamillo, a Heal the Bay spokesman.
Both bayside and
In the Bay Area, 98 percent of ocean beaches had A or A+ grades. For bayside users, 86 percent received an A or a B. A is excellent, B good, C fair, D poor and F failing.
75 on state honor roll
Seventy-five beaches in
Campbell Cove at the mouth of
Earning failing or poor grades in some parts of the year were San Francisco's Baker Beach at Lobos Creek; Candlestick Point at Jackrabbit Beach, Windsurfer Circle and Sunnydale Cove, and Keller Beach's North Beach in Richmond.
Sampling in
Push for more reporting
The Baykeeper, Sierra Club and other supporting groups back expansion of the legally mandated reporting months - in the dry season - and urge the state to provide more money to counties that do the sampling.
Marin is a county that generally stops sampling in the winter season when state aid stops, said Alamillo.
"One might argue that if there was ongoing monitoring, the sewage spills in
At
Tom Abbott, a battalion chief in the San Francisco Fire Department and a member of the department's aquatic rescue team, also rows for pleasure in the bay. For 20 years, he also has coached the rowing team for St. Ignatius College Preparatory School.
The monitoring of beaches "is a reality of modern life," Abbott said. "It's more important to stay healthy and miss a day of swimming or rowing than to risk getting diseases like hepatitis."
Peter Weverka is a
He said that during the nine years he's been swimming at
"A few old-timers who used to swim there when the canneries were operating said it was pretty awful. No matter how bad the pollution could get now, they say, it could never be as bad as with the canneries."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/20/MN0H17OAB8.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
The
By Martha Groves
Santa Monica Pier and
Overall dry-weather water quality in
Other beaches in the county on the bummer list were
Heal the Bay data analyst Mike Grimmer said spotlighting water-quality problems has spurred action: At least seven "bummer" sites have been allocated funds for pollution reduction under the state's clean beach initiative.
"We expect to see improvement at these beaches once the projects are completed," Grimmer said.
For the first time, Heal the Bay also handed out A+ grades to 79 beaches that never exceeded bacterial standards. Among those sites were
Heal the Bay analysts assigned A through F grades to 94 Los Angeles County beaches for the dry-weather period from March 2008 through April 2009, based on levels of weekly bacterial pollution. Seventy percent of sites in the county earned A or B grades during dry weather, whereas 85% of locations statewide received those grades.
Wet-weather water quality in
On a troubling note, the group said
"With the summer coming, the state has made assurances that it will start restoring funding to beach monitoring programs, but there is no firm date," said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay. "Until then, swimmers in many locations in greater
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beaches21-2009may21,0,6689209.story?track=rss
Report card: S.D. beaches not so great in wet weather
The
By Mike Lee
At the start of the decade, runoff from the heavily developed watershed of Cottonwood Creek routinely fouled
The beach's fortunes have improved after the city built a facility to capture creek flows, kill the bacteria with ultraviolet radiation and then send the processed water to the beach.
Heal the Bay's latest assessment suggests cleanup efforts reduced bacterial contamination during the peak beach-going season, partly because of a decrease in sewage spills and water-treatment programs like the one in Encinitas.
But when looking beyond the peak-use period to include the report's overall timeline of April 2008 through March of this year, pollution problems seem to be worsening and likely will continue despite growing efforts to minimize them.
The contamination often comes from runoff after storms. Thirteen of the 32 beach sites monitored in
“This represents an alarming step backward” compared to the 2007-08 results, said Bruce Reznik, head of the advocacy group San Diego Coastkeeper.
The wet-weather problem is driven by pollution-laden runoff from roads, parking lots and neighborhoods. It is virtually impossible to eliminate because some sources of bacteria – including coyotes and sea gulls – can't be controlled easily.
However, storm water regulations and an emphasis on environmentally sound development could eventually curb the contamination.
“We recognize that
The water board has spent roughly $100 million since 2001 – including $15.5 million in
Last fall, the board also approved nearly $2 million in bonds to keep coastal water-quality testing alive after the governor cut regular funding to help balance the state budget.
But no county has received the emergency money because
Heal the Bay's new survey lacks some rankings and trend analysis because of this incomplete monitoring.
“Arguably, the most disturbing aspect of this year's report card is that we have far fewer grades in San Diego County than we have had in the past,” said Kirsten James, the group's water quality director.
The state recently started selling the bonds, raising hopes for a revival of full-scale testing programs in various counties.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Public Health said it's trying to finalize contracts with local governments before releasing about $1 million for coastal water sampling.
In the meantime,
At Coastkeeper, Reznik said the wet-weather problems are starting to be addressed through new development practices that help minimize how much storm water flows off properties. He expects such efforts to grow as San Diegans grapple with the ongoing drought and try to reuse as much rain water as possible.
He also said rules passed by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2007 will help. Those regulations forced city and county officials to upgrade their storm water controls – a long process of trial and error.
In some cases, agencies are trying to educate residents about actions as mundane as cleaning up dog poop so it doesn't wash into creeks and lagoons. Others are experimenting with ways to collect urban runoff and capture pollutants before they enter waterways.
“It's going to be a million small solutions,” Reznik said. #
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/20/bn20beaches-report-card/?metro
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