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The County of Santa Barbara Environmental Health Agency monitored 20 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 of Rincon at Bates Beach. 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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| Arroyo Burro Beach at Arroyo Burro Creek. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Both summer and year-round dry weather water quality at most beaches in Santa Barbara County was very good. Of the 19 year-round water quality monitoring locations, 16 received good-to-excellent water quality marks during dry weather (Figure 21 and 22). Arroyo Burro Beach (D), East Beach at Mission Creek (D) and Jalama Beach (C) received the county’s lowest grades for the summer months.
Santa Barbara’s wet weather water quality was poor, but better than the statewide average. 13 of 19 locations (68%) received wet weather grades of A or B.
Heal the Bay presents a brief trends assessment of Santa Barbara County beaches by comparing this year’s results with the previous two years’ average. There were no dry weather grades lower than a B in the previous two years. (Figure 23 and 24) This year, 3 out of 19 monitoring locations received less than a B (16%) for dry weather. This year’s wet weather was better than the 2003–2005 average, due to the extremely wet season in 2004–2005. Only 32% of beaches received fair-to-poor grades this past rainy season compared to the past average of 49%. There were no wet weather F grades in Santa Barbara County this year (all previous year’s grades were rerun with our new methodology).
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were zero (0) reported sewage spills in Santa
Barbara County that led to beach closures.
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