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The
County of San Mateo, Environmental Health Department
monitored approximately 20 beach locations
on a weekly basis, from as far upcoast as Sharp Park
Beach in Pacifica to a downcoast location of Gazos Beach
at Gazos Creek. The Health Department utilizes volunteers
from the local Surfrider Foundation chapter to
assist in the collection of water samples. Samples are collected
at a distance of 25 yards north or south of the
mouth of a storm drain or creek. For additional water
quality information visit the San
Mateo County Department of Environmental
Health website.
San
Mateo joins the annual beach report card this year
with most beaches showing very good dry weather water
quality (see Table 7 and Table 8). Sixteen (80%) of the 20
beach monitoring locations received A grades. Sharp Park
Beaches, and all beaches from Francis Beach at the foot of
the steps to Gazos Beach at Gazos Creek had excellent dry
weather water quality. Three locations stood out from the
rest with very poor dry weather water quality; Fitzgerald
Marine Reserve (D), Pillar Point Harbor at Barbara's Fish Trap (F), and Venice
Beach at Frenchman's Creek (F) exceeded beach safety standards frequently from
August
through October.
Clean
Beach Initiative Summary
The County of San Mateo and the City of Pacifica
received grants totaling $750,000 from the CBI to reduce
water quality problems at Pilarcitos Creek, Gazos Creek,
and at Pacifica State Beach. The county is in the process of
completing an upstream source identification monitoring
program at Venice Beach to determine potential sources in
Frenchman's and Pillarcitos Creek that may be causing downstream exceedances.
To date, the County was able to
determine a point source along Frenchman's Creek, which was a landowner storing
a large amount of manure adjacent to the creek. This source was abated, and the
County should be providing an overall report of the study sometime this July.
As for Gazos Creek, little to no work has been completed on this project, which
was originally designed to identify potential sources of bacterial contamination,
map known sources, implement appropriate best management practices, and take
enforcement action on illegal dischargers within the watershed. The City of Pacifica
is near completion of its plans to implement a dry weather diversion project
for San Pedro Creek by rerouting runoff flows from developments away from San
Pedro
Creek to an artificial treatment wetland.
Sewage
Spill Summary
The county did not provide Heal the Bay with a summary
of beach closures due to sewage spills in time to be
included in this report. Please refer to our web site for a
current summary.
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