Environmental watchdog, Heal the Bay, has announced that record rainfall last winter caused a high degree of pollution along beaches in San Diego and the rest of Southern California.
Mark Gold, the organization's executive director, said, "What this strongly, dramatically demonstrates is that we're not doing a good job of reducing storm water pollution from getting to our beaches." But he added that 80 percent of beaches have good quality water during summertime, when beaches receive the maximum number of visitors. Mr. Gold was speaking about the nonprofit group's 15th annual Beach Report Card, which is regarded as an accurate assessment of water quality on the shoreline.
However, there were strong words for California, "California's efforts to protect public health at the beach have been woefully inadequate," Mr. Gold emphasized. The report also recommended that swimmers wait for at least three days after a storm before taking to the waters.
However, with summer coming up, the beach water quality had returned to acceptable levels, Shelley Luce, science and policy director of Heal the Bay, said, "It's good news for the swimming season that's coming up."
"A poor grade means you're likely to get sick if you go into the water at that beach," Luce added. Heal the Bay also ranked the top 10 worst beaches. The ranking is based on an analysis of harmful bacterial levels during dry weather. Not surprisingly, eight of these worst beaches are in Southern California. Other beaches on the hit list are Cabrillo in San Pedro; Campbell Cove State Park in Sonoma County; Avalon on Santa Catalina Island; Baby Beach at Dana Point; Pacific near La Jolla; Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County; Redondo Beach Pier and Paradise Cove in Malibu. Heal the Bay added that Doheny State Beach in Orange County and Imperial in San Diego County were most harmful to human health.
The report also said that open-ocean shorelines are generally the cleanest, while enclosed beaches have water of questionable quality, "Enclosed beaches are sheltered, and there are no big waves, so they tend to be favored by families and children. The irony is that they're more likely to make you sick if you get in the water because low water flow tends to mean poor quality," Luce said.
"There's more urban development, more coastal development and more storm drains discharging into the ocean in southern California. And there's not enough funding to educate people and control pollution despite the region's reliance on the beaches to draw tourism," Gold concluded.
