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There
are six agencies within San Diego County that provided
monitoring information to Heal the Bay's Beach
Report Card: the City of Oceanside, the City of San Diego,
Encina Wastewater Authority, San Elijo Joint Powers
Authority, the San Onofre Generating Station, and the
County of San Diego Environmental Health Services. A
majority of the 100 monitoring locations covered by the
Beach Report Card are sampled and analyzed by the City
and County of San Diego. Samples are generally collected
at the wave wash (where runoff and ocean water mix) or
25 yards away from a flowing storm drain, creek or river.
For additional water quality information visit the San
Diego
County Environmental Health Services website.
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| San
Onofre State Beach. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Dry
weather water quality at beaches in San Diego County
was very good between April and October. Of the 100
water quality monitoring locations, 89% received
goodto-excellent water quality marks (see Table 31 and
Table 32). San Diego County had stretches of beaches
with excellent water quality, such as San Onofre
State Beach at San Mateo Creek all the way
to La Jolla at Ravina (excluding beaches at river and creek outlets); Pacific
Beach at Crystal Pier to Mission Beach, projection
of Capistrano Place; Ocean Beach at Ocean Pier to
Point Loma
Lighthouse; and Coronado at North Beach to Imperial Beach at the south end. Within
Mission and San Diego Bays, for the fourth year in
a row, water quality varied greatly from beach to
beach, making
it difficult to recommend swimming locations. Beaches located within enclosed
bays tend to have reduced tidal circulation and are
more susceptible to long-term pollution problems
compared to
open ocean beaches. Only 72% of beaches within the bays received good-to-excellent
water quality marks, compared to the 100% of open
ocean beaches in San Diego County during the AB411
(April
through October) time period.
There
were 11 locations in San Diego County that received
fair-to-poor water quality marks from April to October.
The beaches in Mission and San Diego Bay accounted
for nearly all of the poor
grades. Other San Diego problem beaches for the summer of 2003 were: San Luis
Rey River outlet in Oceanside, Pacific Beach at Pacific
Beach Point, Ocean Beach at the San Diego River (Dog
Beach) and
the north side of Border Fence at Border Field State Park.
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| San
Luis RIver, Oceanside. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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As
is customary every November 1, the County of San
Diego's Department of Environmental Health reduces its beach water quality monitoring
to a handful of sites. However, this past year was slightly different because
the County was able to extend their monitoring program to 12 popular surfing
and swimming spots throughout the year. We commend the Department of Environmental
Health for taking this step. The additional beaches sampled yearround include:
Oceanside Beach at San Luis Rey River, Carlsbad State Beach at Tamarack (Agua
Hedionda Lagoon), South Carlsbad State Beach at Batiquitos Lagoon, Del Mar City
Beach at San Dieguito River, Torrey
Pines State Beach at Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, Ocean Beach at San Diego River
(Dog Beach), and Imperial Beach Pier. Beaches in San Onofre, Encinitas, La
Jolla,
Mission Bay, and San Diego Bay remained mostly untested during the winter months.
Until year-round data is available, during non-summer months you will be swimming
at
these beaches at your own risk. Given
that the County of San Diego still reduces their
monitoring program during
the wet season, there were only 35 locations
monitored during wet weather. A
majority of the problem beaches were in
the southern part of the County.
Monitoring locations from Coronado
Municipal Beach at Silver Strand to the
Tijuana river mouth all received F grades.
Please see Table 33 for a brief review of
dry weather water quality trends for San
Diego County beaches for the past three
years during AB411 (April to October).
This year's water quality was slightly improved relative to the three-year average,
with a substantial percentage increase in As. San Diego also received less rain
this
year, which is most likely reflected in this
year's improved wet weather water quality
percentages.
Clean
Beach Initiative Summary
Funded with $7.8 million from the CBI program, there
were five projects proposed to reduce bacterial pollution
at local beaches in San Diego County. The City of San
Diego has constructed a number
of diversion and source abatement projects in Mission Bay. In addition, the City
of San Diego has finished a source identification study,
and based on results from this study is planning to
implement
irrigation control systems for all the parks within Mission Bay to help reduce
over-watering and dry weather nuisance flows. Originally,
the City was going to implement a major water circulation
improvement project in Eastern Mission Bay, but they could not complete the environmental
review
in time for State Water Board approval. The City of Encinitas has successfully
installed an ultraviolet/ ozone treatment facility
at Moonlight Beach (Cottonwood Creek) to reduce the
bacterial pollution
in the creek before discharging it back into the lagoon and out to the ocean.
Two of the three projects associated with the City
of Imperial Beach have been implemented. A diversion
project at
Date Avenue will be constructed in the coming year, and an analysis by the Scripps
Institute will be out sometime in the fall, and will
include an analysis of coastal currents to determine
the relationship between ocean currents (flow direction)
from the Tijuana River, and magnitude and frequency
of bacterial exceedances. The City and County of San Diego have partnered on
a project for Ocean Beach (Dog Beach) in the San Diego
River watershed. They have completed a source identification
study, and are in the design process of replacing or rehabilitating a number
of antiquated storm
drains to protect existing dry weather diversions.
Sewage
Spill Summary
The County of San Diego led most counties in the total
number of sewage spills that triggered beach closures
and the entire state in the total volume of sewage
spilled. There were 37 sewage spills
that caused beach closures, which was four more than last year. The total known
volume discharged from these spills was approximately
7,004,325 gallons, which was about 4 million gallons
less than the
previous year. Overall, there were seven major spills (> 10,000 gallons), 19
minor spills, and 11 unknown volume amount spills that impacted San Diego County
beaches. Roughly 99%, or 6,981,780 gallons of the total spill volume came from
the seven major spills, the largest discharging over 4.6 million gallons in San
Diego Bay at Tidelands Park. Areas with four or more spills with known volume
amounts (this excludes the unknown volume amounts from the Tijuana River that
often impact Imperial and Coronado Beaches) included Moonlight Beach, and Torrey
Pines State Beach.
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