San Mateo County Health Department has closed four Coastside beaches because of sewer overflows:

• Pacifica State Beach at Linda Mar
• Surfers Beach near the southern Pillar Point break water
• Moss Beach access to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
• the area adjacent to Mirada Road in Half Moon Bay

 

Additionally, the county closed the Bayside mouth of Colma Creek, and advisories have been issued for Gray Whale Cove, Montara State Beach, Pillar Point Harbor, and Half Moon Bay State Beach.

"Our lab is telling us that they have never seen bacteria levels this high," said Dean Peterson, with the San Mateo County Office of Environmental Health.  "Last year did exceed levels during El Niño and this year exceeded last year."

Peterson says, "The waves should clean the beaches remarkably fast. Salt water is not a friendly environment to these bacteria, and the beaches should clear up within five days."

There is an interactive map showing sampling locations and water status at earth911.org.

In a press release, Dr. Scott Morrow, San Mateo County Health Officer, said: "I recommend that people avoid all ocean and bay recreational water contact at this time.  The water is highly contaminated and likely to cause illness.  Anyone becoming ill after contact with these waters should consult their physician."

UPDATE: About 2:00 this afternoon, I drove by Surfers Beach to get some pictures of the signs that the County had put up. There were none.  Dean Peterson from the County tells me that they were put up, but that it’s common for people to take them down, either property owners wanting to avoid stigma, or people not wanting them to interfere with their use of the beach. I talked to one surfer at the beach who had no idea that the water was contaminated. I did find a sign down the road at Miramar.

There are some pictures of surfers enjoying the closed beach at Linda Mar posted on Montara.com.

Monday’s storm resulted in four overflows in four locations in the Sewer Authority Midcoastside (SAM) system. SAM provides sewer service from Half Moon Bay to Montara. Locations of the overflows, with links to maps:

• Montara at the Date/Harte pump
• Mirada and Magellan in Miramar
• Surfer’s Beach
• Controlled overflow at the Montara Storage Facility

"Last year’s rain was a 10 to 20 year event," said SAM board member Scott Boyd, speaking of the deluge that resulted in a well-publicized overflow last year.  "This year was bigger."  And the overflow was worse as well.

According to Jack Foley, manager of SAM, because rain flushed the sytem before the overflow and because of the amount of water involved, the sewage overflow was diluted ten to twenty times. And, of course, the continuing rains flushed it further.

The rain on Monday was tremendous.  With 4.7 inches falling in Montara in less than 24 hours, more then 5 in Pacifica and more than 3 in Half Moon Bay. One inch fell in Montara between 5 and 7am, and 0.6 inches in just half an hour.

The result of all this water was to "max out the system" according to Scott Boyd. This, despite the half-million gallon storage facility that was added recently.  The challenge for the system is that there are multiple points where water is collected and moved on in the system and each of these is a potential bottleneck.

Optimizing the system requires complex modeling, which has been ongoing at SAM. In addition to SAM’s continuing review of their system in light of recent events and their plans for additional storage to accomodate flooding, the authority is under review by the Environmental Protection Agency for last year’s overflow. This review could well result in additional federal requirements on the system.

Events of this nature were considered extreme, but it’s beginning to look like extreme events are the norm.

The letup in the rain over the last 24 hours has allowed SAM to empty its system of all the extra water. This is good news. Another big storm is expected to dump more rain on the Coastside starting Wednesday

John and Clarence Arata are some of the last old-time ranchers in San Mateo County. The fall in the fortunes of local agriculture and the rise of Bay Area property values made them a paradox:  millionaires with no cash and an annual ranching income of less than $35,000. Developers would have given them millions for their 1,161 acres, but they don’t want to sell.

Instead, they sold the development rights to the Peninsula Open Space Trust for $4.7 million. Amelia Hansen of the San Mateo County Times paints a great portrait of one local family’s approach to the land use issues that are tearing Coastsiders apart.

The body of a wetsuited man who apparently drowned at Montara Beach has been identified as Scott Tomkins, 31, of San Francisco.  He told his roommate he had been out swimming or body surfing on Sunday and planned to go back out Monday.

Residents of the Montara Water and Sewer District have received a mail-in questionnaire that has left some wondering whether the sender wants more than their opinion [pdf].

The poll asks six simple questions:

• Since August 2003, how would you rate water service compared to prior periods?
• Do you pay the property taxes at the address to which this questionnaire was mailed?
• If yes, have you noticed a significant increase in your property taxes since Montara and Moss Beach issued General Obligation Bonds for the water system?
• Are you aware that Montara and Moss Beach homeowners are paying an additional $169 a year in property taxes per $100,000 of the assessed value of their home for the same water service they had before? (That means a $500,000 home pays an extra $845 per year in taxes PLUS their regular-water bill.)
• Would you vote for this measure again knowing what you know now?
• Please comment on the amount of the tax increase and any thoughts or feelings you may have about this matter:

One recipient posted a message to the midcoast-l mailing list saying, "It is blatantly a push poll." A push poll is intended to shape the recipient’s opinion, rather than to collect it objectively.

The poll is the work of Adrian Moore, vice president of research of the Reason Public Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank in Santa Monica. The RPPI has a long record of research supporting privatization of water and wastewater utilities, which you’d expect from "a public policy think tank promoting choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress".  According to the Foundation’s web site:

Mr. Moore oversees all the Institute’s policy research. That research includes a focus on issues pertaining to education and child welfare, transportation, urban land use and economic development, environmental quality, and privatization. His own research focuses on privatization, government reform, and infrastructure

Moore told me that he focused on MWSD because there are few case studies that allow you to compare public and private ownership of utilities. Moore says he expects to use the results of this survey as part of a larger study of public/private utility ownership, or possibly "there would be enough interest for it to be a standalone document."

I asked Moore if he wasn’t predetermining the outcome by telling people their property taxes had gone up right before he asked them if they would vote for the measure again. Perhaps it would make more sense to ask how they felt about buying the water company before exploring the impact of the tax increase.  He said, "We thought about that. But we felt that specifically because the purchase entailed a rate increase [sic] that it was good to ask it that way."

I used to be a Research Director at big international market research firm.  I’d fire any analyst who brought me a survey so clearly designed to elicit a specific response.

I asked him if perhaps he should have rephrased the questionnaire to read:

• Are you aware that The California American Water Co., which used to own the Montara water system, is seeking a rate increase of 108% for its water customers in Felton?
• Would you vote for this measure again knowing what you know now?

He didn’t really have a reply to that question.

The question is whether Moore’s survey is intended merely to generate pro-privatization propaganda or might have another, more local motive. Moore says that the project was not specifically funded by any donor.  RPPI solicits grants as an organization and that all research is funded out of the Institute’s budget. In 2000, Reason Foundation, RPPI’s parent, had at least four water companies listed as donors. Moore says that there were only two in 2004, but it also means he’s keeping track.

Moore tells me that the individual responses to the survey, including names and addresses of all respondents, will be available for free from RPPI when the project is completed.

Felton, in Santa Cruz County, wants to buy out their waterworks, which is owned by California-American Water Company. They hope to follow the lead of Montara and Moss Beach, which bought their water company from Cal-Am. Cal-Am is owned by RWE, which is based in Germany.

Residents in Felton have formed Friends of Locally Owned Water (FLOW) to buy out Felton’s privately owned water company on behalf of 1,311 customers. Cal-Am has proposed increasing Felton’s price for water by 108 percent in 2004.

Felton Water News is an excellent source of information on this story.

A lone man in a wetsuit washed up at Montara Beach near where Martini Creek empties into the ocean, the apparent victim of today’s storm-driven surf. No surfboard has been found.

According to Lt. Steve Shiveley of the Sheriff’s Department Moss Beach Substation, they received a call about 2:45 this afternoon. The Fire Department attempted to resuscitate the man on the beach without success.

UPDATE: The body has been identified as Scott Tomkins, 31, of San Francisco.  He told his roommate he had been out swimming or body surfing on Sunday and planned to go back out Monday.

The ‘warm coat’ folks forgot about the men standing in Mac Dutra Park on Main St. in Half Moon Bay looking for work. If you have any clean warm jackets, rain gear, heavy sweaters, hats, boots or socks to spare, please donate them to this group, who would not be standing around the park if people were not coming by and offering them jobs.

I have found them to be very nice and most appreciative of our efforts to help. There are usually about 20 of them, and if you are feeling particularly generous, HMB Bakery or Max at M. Coffee will make coffee for them for $25, or $30 if you want to go for doughnuts from the bakery.

Some of them seem to be teenagers, and most are wearing light sweatshirts and generally inadequate clothing for the cold weather. They start gathering at 7:30 or 8:00am, every day. No, they do not look ‘pretty’. Yes, most are probably illegal. But they are here, living in our community, and their only real fault is that they are poor.

Our friend John Lynch says his favorite Christmas gift this year was this delightful Red-Legged Frog ornament with the accompanying carol:

Half Moon Bay Red-Legged Frogs

Frogs! Frogs!

Where ever you are

Keep us safe from bulldozers afar

Create a space

Where the wildlife is free

And we can glimpse

A view of the sea

Merry Christmas to everyone on the coast, regardless of how you feel about the frogs.  And a happy new year.