|
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 Department of Environmental Health. A majority of the 93 monitoring locations monitored during summer dry weather (AB411) and covered by the Beach Report Card are sampled and analyzed by the City and County of San Diego. Only 55 of these locations were monitored consistently year-round. Samples are generally collected at the wave wash (where runoff and ocean water mix) or a distance away from a flowing storm drain, creek or river.
For additional water quality information visit the San
Diego
County Environmental Health Services website.
Dry weather water quality at beaches in San Diego County was very good. Of the 55 year-round water quality monitoring locations, 89% received good-to-excellent water quality marks (Figure 38 and 39). San Diego County’s water quality during the summer dry weather time-period was nearly identical, with 90% of the monitored locations receiving an A or B grade. Long stretches of San Diego County’s beaches showed very-good-to-excellent water quality during the summer dry weather time period (AB411); from San Onofre State Beach at San Onofre Creek all the way to Windansea Beach at Playa Del Norte and from Tourmaline surf park down to Imperial Beach. Most Mission and San Diego Bay locations were not monitored frequently enough to acquire a year-round grade. As with most enclosed water bodies, water quality varied greatly from beach to beach, making it difficult to recommend swimming locations. Compared to open ocean beaches, beaches located within enclosed bays tend to have reduced tidal circulation and are more susceptible to long-term pollution problems. However, some of these swimming spots that have had very good-toexcellent water quality during the AB411 time period for at least the last two years are: in Mission Bay (Ventura Cove, Fanuel Park, and Crown Point Shores) and in San Diego Bay (Silver Strand and Shoreline Beach Park).
There were 6 of 55 locations in San Diego County that received fair-to-poor water quality marks during the year-round dry weather time period. They were the San Luis Rey River outlet in Oceanside (C), the perennially problematic P.B. Point in Pacific Beach (C — improved from an F last year), Campland west of Rose Creek in Mission Bay, and the stretch of beach from Border Field State Park to the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge Shoreline at the Tijuana River mouth. These southernmost beaches continue to suffer from very poor water quality.
 |
 |
| San Luis River, Oceanside. Photo: Heal the Bay |
|
|
|
Most locations in San Diego showed a vast improvement in wet weather water quality from the extremely wet and polluted 2004–2005. Overall wet weather grades were well above the state average, with 73% of monitoring locations receiving A or B grades. Poor grades were earned at monitoring locations at the San Luis Rey River outlet (F) and Buccaneer Beach at Loma Alta Creek (F) in Oceanside, San Dieguito River Beach in Del Mar (D), Campland west of Rose Creek in Mission
Bay (F), and the stretch of beach from Carnation Avenue in Imperial Beach to Border Field State
Park at the border fence. San Diego’s southernmost beaches were again frequently closed to the public due to sewage contaminated runoff from the Tijuana Estuary.
Year-round dry weather water quality, in terms of grades by percent, were slightly above average this year in San Diego County. The two-year average for combined A and B grades by percentage was 86% compared to this year’s results of 89% (Figures 40 and 41). Wet weather percentages were dramatically better than the past average, with 73% good-to-excellent grades this year compared to the rain soaked 46% for the previous two years (all previous year’s grades were rerun with our new methodology).
Sewage
Spill Summary
Like Orange County, San Diego County closures due
to sewage spills returned to 2003–2004 levels after a massive increase in both the volume and number of sewage spills in 2004–2005 which were due to the extremely high rainfall during that year’s winter season. There were 36 closures due to sewage spills between April 2005 and March 2006, with 13 spills of known volume releasing approximately 115,000 gallons of sewage to local beaches. Of the 13, there were three major spills (=10,000 gallons) that accounted for 92% of the known sewage spill volume. The first major spill closed Carlsbad State Beach at Tamarack Avenue and the warm water jetty for two days in early April due to sanitary sewer overflow of 28,600 gallons. A line break (21,998 gallons) and a power failure (45,500 gallons) led to two separate closures at the Batiquitos Lagoon outlet in South Carlsbad State Beach in April and June 2005.
23 of the 36 beach closures were determined by model projections of sewage contaminated plumes from the Tijuana Estuary (see sidebar at bottom of this page on the right).
There were no volume amounts associated with these closures.
|
