Pillar Point Harbor’s beaches are among the most polluted in the state, according to Heal the Bay’s 2005 California beach report card. This is Capistrano Beach’s the second year in a row on the organization’s “Beach Bummers” list.
Venice Beach at Frenchman’s Creek was the second-worst beach in the county, with consistent scores of D and F. The County has been working on Frenchman’s creek and discovered a landowner storing a a large amount of manure next to the creek. This problem has since been cleared up. But after a relatively good summer in 2004, the high bacteria counts resumed in September and October.
There’s a good story by Amelia Hansen at the County Times, quoting Dean Peterson, the county’s director of environmental health services, as saying that because the issues with the storm drains at Capistrano beach have been cleared, he suspects that the high bacteria counts may be due to the large bird population in the Harbor.
Petersen says that Venice Beach is a higher priority for cleanup because a lot more people go into the water there. He’s also not sure it’s fair to compare tiny Capistrano Beach with some of the biggest beaches in Southern California.
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Heal the Bay
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Click on the report card for an interactive version at Heal the Bay’s website.
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Barry,
I suspect that Dean’s concerns as expressed by “he suspects that the high bacteria counts may be due to the large bird population in the Harbor” might well be expanded to include the folks living in their boats, the seals, the fish-cleaning detritus, and the most causative of all factors - the very poor circulation within the confines of the breakwater.
The breakwater is also blamed for the disappearance of sand from Miramar Beach and the rapid bluff erosion at Mirada Surf due to its interference with the sand migration cycle. Some four years ago I was told that the Army Corps of Engineers was studying the alteration of the breakwater to address sand migration and circulation issues. I wonder what ever became of that study?
Mike