The County of Ventura Environmental Health Division, monitored 56 locations on a weekly basis from April through October, from as far upcoast as Rincon Beach south of the creek (near the Santa Barbara County line) to a downcoast location at Staircase Beach, located at the north end of Leo Carrillo State Beach. Ventura County significantly diminished their winter water quality monitoring program again this year due to budget issues. Last year’s winter sampling in Ventura County was completed at only 20 of the 56 sites, whereas this year’s monitoring occurred at only 11 locations from November through March at predominate surf and recreational beaches. Most samples are collected between 25 to 50 yards north or south of the mouth of a storm drain or creek. For additional water quality information visit the Ventura County Environmental Health Division website.

San Buenaventura Beach at San Jon Road drain. Photo: Heal the Bay.

For the sixth year in a row, overall AB411 water quality at Ventura County beaches was excellent (Figure 25 and 26), and proved to be the best water quality in Southern California this year. Of the 56 water quality monitoring locations during summer dry weather, 55 (98%) locations received good-to-excellent water quality marks. The only Ventura County beach to receive a summer dry weather grade lower than a B was San Buenaventura Beach south of the drain at San Jon Rd. (C). For the second year in a row, the Hobie/Kiddie Beach monitoring locations in Channel Islands Harbor have seen improved water quality. Although these beaches used to be monitored year-round to give a more accurate representation of water quality, this year all 4 locations received A grades for the AB411 time period. It remains to be seen if this year’s results are the continuation of a longer trend or merely an anomaly. Beachgoers should still using caution when choosing these sites and all other enclosed beaches. The problematic San Buenaventura Beach south of San Jon drain was not monitored year-round.

Wet weather water quality was excellent at the 11 locations that were monitored year-round. The only two locations not to receive A grades were Peninsula Beach north of the south jetty (B) and Silverstrand at San Nicholas Avenue south of the jetty (B).

Heal the Bay presents a brief trends assessment of Ventura County beaches by comparing this year’s percentage results with the previous two year’s average (all previous year’s grades were rerun with our new methodology). Figure 27 shows that no monitoring locations received less than an A for year-round dry weather this year. However, there were only 11 year-round monitoring locations this year compared to 20 last year and 56 in 2003-2004. As for wet weather (Figure 28), all 11 locations monitored yearround this year received As or Bs. However, 9 monitoring locations with fair-to-poor wet weather water quality in 2004-2005 were not monitored this past winter.

Sewage Spill Summary
There were no known sewage spills that led to beach closures in Ventura County reported to Heal the Bay.

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