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California
Beaches
The overall dry weather water quality at California
beaches this year was very good. Of the 373 yearround
water quality monitoring locations throughout California, 312, or 84%, of the
locations received good-to-excellent water quality
marks (A or B) during dry weather (see Table 1 and
Table 2).
There were 61 locations that received fair-to-poor water quality marks.
Southern
California dry weather grades were notably better
than the 1999-2003 averages. 86% of dry weather beach
grades were good-to-excellent for 2003-2004, beating
the average by 6%. With the
addition of 4 new northern counties' data this year, Heal the Bay looks forward
to integrating the
entire state into our overall trends analysis.
The
disparity between dry and wet weather grades continues
to be dramatic. This drastic difference in water
quality is why Heal the Bay and public health agencies
continue to recommend that no one
swim in the ocean during, and for at least three days after, a significant rainstorm.
Few beach locations in California escape the influence
of polluted stormwater runoff. During the 2003-2004
rainy
season, 52% of monitored beaches received fair-to-poor grades (see Table 1 and
Table 2). The fluctuations in wet weather water quality
witnessed at a specific location over the past five
years have likely
been due to differences in rainfall rather than any capital improvements or effective
storm water management programs. To date, other than
education programs, there have been no major efforts
along the coast targeting reductions in fecal bacteria
densities from storm water. A list of all the grades
can be found
in Appendix B. The results demonstrate that, for 2003-
2004, the data during the summer was similar to the yearround
dry weather results.
California
“Beach Bummers”
Numerous California beaches vied for the "Beach
Bummer" (the monitoring location with the poorest dry weather water quality)
crown this year. The 10 finalists were: Pacific Beach at P.B. Point in San Diego
County (10th), Cabrillo Beach, harborside at the lifeguard tower in Los Angeles
County (9th), Baby Beach at Dana Point Harbor in Orange County (8th), Channel
Islands Harbor Beach Park at Kiddie Beach in Ventura County (7th), Stillwater
Cove at the Beach and Tennis Club in MontereyCounty (6th), Pillar Point Harbor
at Barbara's Fish Trap in San Mateo County (5th), Avalon Beach between the Pier
and Busy Bee Restaurant on Catalina Island (4th), Surfrider Beach at the breach
point in Los Angeles County (3rd), and Campbell Cove State Park Beach at Bodega
Bay
in Sonoma County (2nd). For the third year in a row, the
California "Beach Bummer"-the most polluted beach in
California-was Doheny Beach from North Beach to 2000 feet south of San Juan Creek
in Orange County (1st).
Doheny Beach was awarded the "Beach Bummer" based on the beach area degraded
(over a half-mile stretch of beach), the severity of its poor water quality and
the number of annual visitors to the beach.
Heal
the Bay strongly commends the many agencies that
continued their monitoring programs beyond the AB411
required
dates of April through October. This action provided approximately 20 additional
weeks of water sampling, which meant beachgoers, particularly surfers going
out for the winter swells, could continue receiving
information about water quality
and have the ability to make better health risk decisions about their beaches
of choice.
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