Heal the Bay released their California Beach Report Card today. The 517 monitoring stations tested for fecal total colioform, fecal colioform and Enterococcus. A lot of the pollution comes from birds and sea life, though much of it comes from storm drain run-off from cities. As ususal, Southern California beaches are at the bottom of the list.
87% of locations got a grade A or B
5% got grade C
1% got grade D
6% got grade F
The 10 worst:
1. Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island (Los Angeles County)
2. Santa Monica Municipal Pier (Los Angeles County)
3. Poche Beach (Orange County)
4. North Beach Doheny (Orange County)
5. Marie Canyon Drain at Puerco Beach (Los Angeles County)
6. Cabrillo Beach harborside (Los Angeles County)
7. City of Long Beach, multiple locations (Los Angeles County)
8. Campbell Cove State Park Beach (Sonoma County)
9. Clam Beach County Park near Strawberry Creek (Humboldt County)
10. Pismo Beach Pier (San Luis Obispo County)
One commonly poor beach in Central California is at Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo county, the site of the Half Moon Bay salmon & crab fishing fleets.
It is interesting to note that the development of a large hotel, spa and shopping mall on the site cooincides with the timing of the cancellation of water testing at this beach. Local officials decided that the beach didn't have enough human activity to warrant testing. This beach is heavily used by windsurfers and kayakers, and we've seen families swim there many times. Other testing points in San Mateo are very rarely used so this seems a bit fishy to us.
For the whole report check it out here
No comments:
Post a Comment