Most North County beaches score well in annual water-quality report

North County Times – Escondido,CA,USA
Kathy Weldon, the city of Encinitas stormwater program manager, said
in a telephone interview Wednesday that she’s not surprised to hear
that Cardiff State …

LA JOLLA — All but one of North County’s beaches got “A” grades for overall water quality in the latest annual statewide Beach Report Card released Wednesday by the environmental organization Heal the Bay.

The exception was Cardiff State Beach at the mouth of San Elijo Lagoon — it received a “D” and was recognized as one of six “bummer” beaches in San Diego County in the Santa Monica-based group’s 17th annual report on beach conditions.

Kathy Weldon, the city of Encinitas stormwater program manager, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that she’s not surprised to hear that Cardiff State Beach ranked poorly. There were multiple times last year that the area near the lagoon mouth was posted with warning signs because tests found high bacteria counts, she said.

The city isn’t certain what caused those problems, but it should have a better handle on the issue this fall when Encinitas and other North County committees launch a new, more intensive lagoon contamination testing system that’s being required by the state, Weldon said.

Heal the Bay reports that it has 10,000 members and doesn’t conduct its own water-quality tests. It takes daily and weekly fecal bacteria contamination data collected in the surf zone by county health departments and cities. Then it runs the information through a computer program to generate the easy-to-understand grades, group scientist Mitzy Taggart said during a news conference at La Jolla Shores beach.

“Basically, the grade indicates the risk of getting sick if you swim in the water,” she said.

Mark McPherson, who manages water-quality issues for San Diego County’s environmental health division, said the county has helped the group with its annual report card in the past and its grades are “consistent with what we see” during testing sessions.

“We would say exactly the same thing,” he said as he discussed the test results.

Two spots south of the North County region fared even worse than Cardiff this year — overall “F” ratings went to Mission Bay at the Visitors Center and Bayside Park on the San Diego Bay. The mouth of the Tijuana River received an “F” during the peak beachgoing period from April to October, and an “D” for the whole year.

Taggart, who has a doctorate in public health from UCLA, said that two areas have traditionally had poor rankings in the group’s annual reports. They are:

# Spots next to the mouth of lagoons or creeks, like Cardiff State Beach, which suffer when urban runoff flows into the lagoons or the creeks.

# Mostly enclosed beach areas like La Jolla Cove or Mission Bay. Water doesn’t circulate as much through these protected areas, so pollutants tend to build up.

The city of Encinitas suspects that stormwater runoff played a part in causing its high bacterial contamination levels, Weldon said. There are multiple city storm drains dumping water into the lagoon, including one that serves the Cardiff area and dumps into the lagoon at the railroad tracks, she said.

Education campaigns — including painting “I live downstream” messages with colorful fish near storm drains — aim to prevent people from pouring things into the storm drains, but some bad stuff still ends up in the system, she said. For example, someone hosing off a patio and illegally letting the excess water run into the nearest storm drain can cause problems, she added.

“The water could have been clean coming out of the tap, but by the time it’s gone across the patio, you’re going to have bacteria (in it) and that’s what they’re going to be testing for,” she said.

Heal the Bay’s new report card covers the period from April 2006 through March. The 7.3 million gallon sewage spill that poured into Buena Vista Lagoon occurred just after this year’s reporting period closed. It will be mentioned in next year’s report card, Taggart said.

There was lots of good news Wednesday statewide — about 82 percent of the beach test locations across California received good to excellent ratings, the group reported.

But don’t break out the champagne and start celebrating. Water contamination levels are heavily influenced by how much rain falls in a given year. Last year, little rain fell, so the ratings mostly look good, Taggart said.

The group’s report can be viewed at: http://www.healthebay.org/