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The County of San Mateo Environmental Health Department monitored 20 beach locations on a weekly basis year-round, from as far upcoast as Sharp Park Beach in Pacifica to a downcoast location of Gazos Beach at Gazos Creek. The Health Department utilizes volunteers from the local Surfrider Foundation chapter to assist in the collection of water samples. Heal the Bay would like to give special thanks to Carolann Towe with the Surfrider Foundation’s San Mateo Chapter for facilitating data acquisition for this report. Samples are collected at a distance of 25 yards north or south of the mouth of a stormdrain or creek.
For additional water
quality information visit the San
Mateo County Department of Environmental
Health website.
This past year, San Mateo beaches again had excellent summer dry weather water quality (Figures 30 and 31). Nineteen of the 20 (95%) beach monitoring locations received A grades. One location again stood out from the rest with very poor AB411 dry weather water quality: Venice Beach at Frenchman’s Creek (F). This location is a haven for seabirds and exceedances at this location are most likely a result of their immense presence there. One of San Mateo’s most historically problematic beaches, Pillar Point Harbor at Capistrano Avenue, was not monitored this past year as the county health department determined that not enough visitors used the beach to continue monitoring. Heal the Bay believes that the bad publicity surrounding the poor water quality grades at this infrequently visited beach was also a factor in the decision to stop monitoring. This location has been a statewide Beach Bummer for the past 3 years, but no recent data were publicly available at the time of this report.
Wet weather water quality in San Mateo was good. 81% of beaches received A or B grades during wet weather. Linda Mar Beach at San Pedro Creek (D), Pillar Point harbor and the end of Westpoint Avenue (C), and Surfer’s Beach (C) received the county’s worst wet weather grades.
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were 2 reported sewage spills in San Mateo County that led to beach closures. Pillar Point #8 was closed for 7 days due to a spill last spring and reopened on April 6th. There was one other small spill at Surfers Beach resulting in a one day closure.
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