Heal The Bay
A PROGRAM OF THE NEWPORT BEACH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Most Newport beaches ace tests on quality of water
Written by Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Daigle
Also published in the Newport Beach Daily Pilot
Recently, I had the honor of attending the annual meeting of Stop Polluting Our Newport (SPON), a local organization that promotes the protection and preservation of Newport Beach's environment, including valuable local resources such as Newport Bay. At this year's meeting, Dr. Jack Skinner discussed bay sedimentation and Heal the Bay's annual "Beach Report Card" (BRC). Please allow me to share with you the background and results of this water quality scorecard.
Heal The Bay is a non-profit based in Santa Monica, geared originally to the protection of Santa Monica Bay. HTB gathers publicly-available water quality monitoring information from local agencies and assembles a comprehensive and easy-to-understand report card. This, its 18th annual report card, gives an overview of a year-long analysis of storm water runoff, ocean & tributary water quality from May 2007 to April 2008. If a beach receives a good grade, it's assumed that there is less risk of bather illness from swimming at that beach over the long term.
A link between health and swimming in waters containing elevated levels of certain bacteria was first identified in a groundbreaking 1996 epidemiological study conducted by the University of Southern California, the Sanitation Districts of Orange County, the City of Los Angeles, and Heal the Bay, under the auspices of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project.
Those that participate in water contact sports such as swimming and surfing may have firsthand experience with conditions such as swimmer's ear, nasal congestion, stomach flu and rashes.
The amount of "indicator bacteria" present in runoff is currently the most-used sign of whether or not the beach is safe for recreational contact. State law requires local officials to measure three types of indicator bacteria - total coliform, fecal coliform and Enterococcus.
This year's HTB report included grades for 23 our of city's beaches located on Newport Bay and along the coast. The data used to compile the annual (and monthly) grades is collected by the Orange County Health Care Agency and the Orange County Sanitation District.
OCHCA collects weekly samples at 31 locations in Newport Bay and analyzes them at the Back Bay Science Center. These include the 23 beaches found in the HTB report and eight others of geographical and historical significance such as Newport Boulevard Bridge, Promontory Point Channel, and the former Ski Zone in the Upper Bay. Four additional samples are collected from the creeks and major tributaries flowing into the bay (San Diego Creek, Santa Ana Delhi, Big Canyon Creek and Back Bay Drain).
In addition, the Orange County Sanitation District monitors eight coastal Newport Beach stations five times each week. All of the historical coastal and bay monitoring data can be found at the downloads section of the HCA web site at www.ocbeachinfo.com.
The good news is that all of the Newport bay and beach locations monitored received a grade of A or A+ except for 43rd Street which received a B. Among the locations with an A+ grade are Park Avenue Beach, Ruby Avenue Beach, 15th Street Beach, and Crystal Cove. The grades for Newport Bay and Beach can be found in the Appendix of the Annual Report at www.healthebay.org.
Homework done by the city of Newport Beach over the years contributed to the high score. The city has installed screens on storm drains, increased our maintenance of wastewater lines, increased our cleaning of storm drain catch basins, scheduled more frequent street sweeping (including adding alleyways to our schedule), helped reduce water runoff from lawns by encouraging the use of high-tech weather-based irrigation controllers, and is currently developing bioswales to remove bacteria.
Thanks to these efforts and the ongoing commitment by SPON and other local groups to protect our environment, the annual report card reflects water quality improvements that help protect your health when you visit the beach. The City of Newport Beach is committed to continuing to make advancements in water practices and quality. |
