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The
County of Santa Barbara, Environmental Health Agency
monitored approximately 21 locations on a weekly
basis throughout the year, from as far upcoast as
Guadalupe Dunes south of the Santa
Maria River outside the City of Guadalupe to a downcoast location at Rincon Beach,
north of the creek. Most samples are collected 25
yards north or south of the mouth of a storm drain
or creek.
For additional water quality information visit Santa
Barbara County Environmental
Health Agency website.
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| Leadbetter
Beach at Honda Creek. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Dry weather water quality at most beaches in Santa
Barbara County was very good. Of the 21 water quality
monitoring locations, 20 locations received good-to-excellent
water quality marks (see Table
15 and Table 16). The cleanest beaches were at Guadalupe Dunes, Surf Beach, Refugio
State Beach, El Capitan State Beach, Sands, Hope
Ranch Beach, Leadbetter Beach, Carpinteria City
Beach, and
Rincon Beach. Arroyo Quemada continued to show improvement from its 1999-2002
F grades by earning a dry weather grade of B for
the second year in a row. East
Beach at Mission Creek, one of last year's Beach
Bummers, showed marked improvement. With its best
dry weather grade in 5 years, East Beach received
a B.
Wet
weather water quality in Santa Barbara County differed
dramatically from dry weather water quality.
While 95% of beaches received good-to-excellent
grades during dry weather, only 62% touted similar
grades
for wet weather.
Wet
weather water quality in Santa Barbara County on the
whole continues to be poor. Although 55% of the beaches
received an F this year, this was a slight improvement
compared to the previous three years - 60% in 2002,
100% in 2001, and 79% in 2000.
Please
see Tables 17 and 18 for a brief comparison of the
four-year average and this year's dry and wet weather water quality grade percentages
for Santa Barbara County beaches.
Santa Barbara County's general water quality trend for both dry and wet weather
shows improved water quality. However, Santa Barbara received substantially less
rain- and fewer high-intensity storms-this past year, which is most likely reflected
in this year's improved wet weather
water quality percentages.
Clean
Beach Initiative Summary
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| Arroyo
Burro Beach at Arroyo Burro Creek. Photo: Heal
the Bay |
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CBI water quality improvement projects are scheduled
for
Jalama Beach, Refugio Beach, Rincon Beach, Mission
Creek, and Arroyo Burro. The City of Santa Barbara
received a $125,000 grant for a source identification and
source abatement effort, and for identifying locations for
dry weather low flow diversions at Mission Creek. Numerous
recommendations for managing polluted flows in the watershed
came from this effort. Also, the City received funds for
a feasibility study to determine potential sources of pollution
to East Beach at Mission Creek. Based on the study, the
City is moving forward with two dry weather runoff diversions,
one at Haley Street and one at Hope Street. The
diversions are currently being designed, construction should be completed by
April 2005. The County of Santa Barbara received a
$1.2 million grant to retrofit beach bathroom
facilities to prevent wastewater discharges and runoff pollution
from impacting Jalama Beach, Arroyo Burro Beach,
and Rincon Beach. To date, the County has completed an
engineering assessment and permitting requirements for
two projects at Jalama Beach, and will be proceeding with
design and construction over the next year. The two projects
are a catch basin filter for their equipment storage area, and
retrofitting the bathroom showers to drain into their own
leach field, separate from the bathroom toilets. As for
Arroyo Burro, this project is retrofitting the two dumpster
areas to be fully enclosed and diverting runoff from this area
to drain to the sewer system. Construction of this project
should begin this fall. The Rincon project was to construct
two new bathrooms, one on the Santa Barbara County Parks
property and the other on State Parks property (Ventura
County side), that would connect to the Carpinteria
Sanitation District facility main line. Unfortunately, the project
is predicated on the District getting a sewage main line
out to this area, which has yet to happen. The County is prepared
to move forward on this project once the sewage main
line reaches the Rincon Beach area, but unfortunately, the
CBI funds will expire, and will not be usable then.
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were zero (0) reported sewage spills in Santa
Barbara County that led to beach closures.
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