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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 were collected 25 yards north or south of the mouth of a stormdrain or creek.
For additional water quality information visit the 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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| Leadbetter
Beach at Honda Creek. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Summer dry weather water quality in Santa Barbara saw a dramatic decline this past year. Fifteen of 20 monitoring locations (75%) received A or B grades. This is well below the county’s 3-year average of 95%, and the 85% of good-toexcellent grades earned for the 2005 AB411 time period. There were three locations that received C grades for the summer dry weather time period last summer and two locations [Refugio State Beach (D) and Arroyo Burro Beach (F)] that had poor water quality. Arroyo Burro Beach received an F grade on our last annual report for the same time period; however, Refugio State Beach’s poor water quality was a surprise, as it has scored an A grade in our last four annual reports. This year’s poor AB411 grade at this location was caused mostly by some high bacteria counts in July and August that resulted in multiple parameter geometric mean exceedances for almost half of the AB411 time period.
Santa Barbara’s wet weather water quality was poor, but well above the statewide average. Twelve of 20 locations (60%) 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 percentage results with the previous three year average. There were no dry weather F grades in the previous three years (Figure 22). This year, Arroyo Burro earned the first dry weather F grade in Santa Barbara County since 2002-2003. This year’s wet weather was better than the 2003–2006 average, mostly due to the extremely wet season in 2004- 2005, coupled with an extremely dry season this past year. Twenty percent of beaches received poor grades this past rainy season compared to the past average of 28%.
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were zero (0) reported sewage spills in Santa
Barbara County that led to beach closures.
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