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The County of San Francisco, in partnership with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, continued their weekly monitoring program for ocean and bay shoreline
locations. The monitoring program is funded in part
through an Environmental Protection Agency National
Beach Guidance and Performance Criteria for Recreational
Waters grant. The County monitored eleven locations on a
weekly basis year-round, from Aquatic Park Beach Hyde
Street Pier to Ocean Beach at Sloat Blvd. For additional water quality information visit the San
Francisco County Department of Environmental Health website.
During the pivotal AB411 time period, all but one of San Francisco’s monitoring locations scored an A or B, with only Baker Beach at Lobos Creek receiving a poor mark (F). Year-round dry weather water quality at San Francisco beaches this past year was good. 12 of the 14 locations received A grades (Figure 11 and 12). The two locations with poor dry weather water quality were the Lobos Creek monitoring location (F) and Windsurfer Circle at Candlestick Point (D).
Like many coastal counties, wet weather water quality at San Francisco monitoring sites was poor. 5 of the 14 locations received the highest grades of B (36%) and 9 locations (64%) received fair-to-poor marks.
Sewage
Spill Summary
Given the City and County of San Francisco’s unique infrastructure, raw sewage spills affecting recreational beaches typically do not occur (see Background Info sidebar on the right side of this page). However, combined sewer discharges (CSS) are legally allowed as the result of substantial rainfall and occur during wet weather months.
Because CSS discharges are related to the intensity of
rainfall in different parts of the City, different beach sites
are affected differently depending on location.
Therefore, Heal the Bay broke San Francisco County into
four sub-regions to provide a more localized assessment
of the impact of discharges.
The four sub-regions are:
Aquatic Park Beach & Crissy Field Beach; Baker & China Beach; Ocean Beach & Fort Funston; and Candlestick Point. There was a total of 15 combined sewer discharge events between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006 that resulted in portions of San Francisco beaches being closed (not every discharge affected every beach). This was four more than during the same period last year. All but two of the discharges took place in December (10.88 inches of rain) and March (7.95 inches of rain). The Ocean Beach/Fort Funston region led all areas with 11 combined sewage discharges, followed closely by the Baker Beach/China Beach region with 10. The Candlestick Point State Recreation Area was not impacted heavily, with only two discharges. Aquatic Park Beach/Crissy Field Beach are located in areas where there are separate sewers; discharges from the CSS do not affect these beaches.
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