Heal the Bay has released its 2005 California Summer Beach Report Card [PDF]. Overall, Coastside beaches did well, with 18 beaches in San Mateo County receiving A’s.  However, Pillar Point Harbor at Capistrano Avenue Beach [Google map], which received the County’s only F grade. Also, both Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at San Vicente Creek and Venice Beach at Frenchman’s Creek received grades of C.

However, for the most recent 4-week period, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D, with all other County beaches getting an A or A+. [Report card at Heal the Bay]

The problem at Pillar Point Harbor is long-standing. The site suffers from lack of circulation because of the breakwater, plenty of birds, and other sources of pollution from its use as a harbor.

San Francisco County received 11 A’s and 2 B’s, and Santa Cruz received 11 A’s but two of its beaches were closed this summer.

According to Heal the Bay, the overall water quality at California beaches this past summer was very good. Of the approximately 450 monitoring locations throughout California, 407 locations (91%) received very good-to-excellent water quality marks (365 A’s and 42 B’s). There were 41 locations (9%)  that received fair-to-poor water quality marks (20 C’s, 6 D’s and 15 F’s). Overall, California’s summer beach water quality grades were slightly better than the summers of 2004 and 2003.

The grades are based on dry weather water quality data provided collected between Memorial Day and September 30, 2005. 

Heal the Bay

This month, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D.

In its endorsements for the Montara Water and Sanitary District, the Half Moon Bay Review seems to have gotten confused.

In endorsing Paul Perkovic, Bob Ptacek, and Peggy Ruse for seats on the board, the Review concluded:

That leaves Jim Harvey the odd man out. He was appointed to his current seat three years ago and generally agrees with the other incumbents on issues of planning and water supply. He has been a good steward; we simply found him the least strong of four good candidates.

Actually, although Jim Harvey was appointed to his seat three years ago, it was a two-year seat and he stood for election in 2003. In that election, he was endorsed by the Review over Peggy Ruse [Review’s 2003 endorsements], who was running against him for the two-year seat, and Harvey soundly defeated Ruse [PDF of election results], with 55% of the votes to Ruse’s 8% (she was fourth in a four-way race).

Coastsiders have written to the Review to set the record straight, but none of their letters appeared in Wednesday’s paper, the first after the paper’s MWSD endorsement appeared.

Review Managing Editor Clay Lambert replied to Coastsider’s email asking what happened:

I think even the folks who complain about the newspaper (at least those who take the time to correspond) know that I print virtually every letter I get—including those that are critical of me. Frequent writers also know that I print them in the order in which they are received. I ran out of room for about a half-dozen last week. I will make every effort to get them all in this week.

Jim Harvey, a good and thoughtful man who impressed me very much during our interview, was originally appointed and subsequently elected. That could have been more clear in our endorsement.

We have a lot of challenges with the County’s determination to expand the population faster than our supply of water. And we’re still digesting the purchase of our water system. Fortunately, the current members of the Montara Water and Sanitary District are sincere, hard-working and smart.

We don’t object to the idea of adding new blood to a board, but it’s difficult to make a case for Peggy Ruse.  I recommend reading her statement at Smartvoter. A lot of it is nearly incomprehensible. I don’t understand her argument we should vote for her because no resident of Moss Beach is on the board. She presents no support for her pie-in-the-sky proposal to bring Hetch Hetchy water into the district with a pipeline through the Devil’s Slide Tunnel. And she does not support her allegations that the board has a "hidden agenda", other than their endorsement by the League for Coastside Protection, which she says has a "reputation for being no-growth". That charge is leveled at the LCP all the time, but no one (least of all Peggy Ruse) has demonstrated it.

Residents of Montara and Moss Beach are lucky to have their current water board and we recommend voting for the incumbents.

Coastside County Water District (CCWD) could use a little fresh air. It is supporting the sale of connections to its water system by speculators for $30,000; it’s stockpiling large amounts of cash; it’s raising its employees’ pay and betterment benefits generously; and its infrastructure strategy is arguably designed to encourage development.  (For one view of these issues, read the analysis of CCWD’s budget at Voice of the Coast.)

Finally, with the Coastside seriously examining water recycling, we are about to enter into a huge debate whether the water we save should be used for growth or restoration.

There should be more conversation and debate about these policies, but the current board seems to have a consensus. There’s not a lot of public debate going on.

I sat in on the CCWD meeting where the board voted unanimously to charge close to nearly $30,000 for water connections. The board’s big concern seemed to be whether it was going to take away the profits of speculators whom the board members acknowledged were hoarding connections.  The consensus was, "That’s what markets are for." But it’s not what water boards are for. Because it was a daytime meeting, I was the only member of the public in the audience.  An independent board member would assure that more than one voice is represented at these crucial meetings.

Jim Marsh is knowledgeable and experienced about the district. While he can’t change the culture of the CCWD board by himself, adding an independent voice to the board would improve the quality of the conversation at a crucial moment in the Coastside’s history.

The National Weather Service has announced that due to high winds (especially on the hills) from an incoming cold front, that there will be a fire weather watch from Saturday at 6pm to Monday at 6am throughout the Bay Area. Although some rain is forecast, it is expected to be extremely light.

Click "read more" to see the full report.

The National Weather Service has issued a high surf advisory from 11am Saturday to 5pm Sunday. This will produce rip currents and erosion as well as high waves.

A strong low pressure system presently centered approximately 500 nm west of the Washington/Oregon border has generated a large northwesterly swell that will impact the California coast beginning today. Swells are expected to peak Saturday into Sunday with heights reaching 15 to 19 ft. Swells will be steep due to the relatively short periods between swells. The northwesterly swell will continue through sunday and slowly taper off Monday and Tuesday.

During the last high surf advisory, which affected south-facing beaches, five people were swept off the Pillar Point Harbor breakwater.

Darin Bovile

Click on the image to see the full-size version.

Montara-based photographer Darin Boville sent us this beautiful image taken from just above Farallone View Elementary in Montara on Sunday night. Darin says, "We don’t get as many of them here as in other parts of the country—not enough dust blowing up due to the ocean, I suppose."

Be sure to click on the image to see the full-size version. You’ll be glad you did.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service has announced its new designated critical habitat for the western snowy plover, and they have reduced the area by 40% [USFWS Plover website]. None of the critical habitat in Half Moon Bay has been eliminated.

The reductions were taken primarily as a result of an economic analysis of the impact of the designation

Some 2,859 acres of proposed critical habitat in six units were deleted based on the projected cost of designating critical habitat. An economic analysis prepared by Industrial Economics Inc. projected that critical habitat could cost between $273 million and $645 million, with the biggest costs due to beach recreation losses. More than three-quarters of the loss was found to occur in five proposed California critical habitat units, located on Coronado’s Silver Strand, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and two on Monterey Bay.

In addition, 615 acres were deleted because of management plans and commitments—such as Habitat Conservation Plans—and 1,621 acres were deleted because they are covered by military land management plans or national security needs.

The Service also is conducting a status review of the Pacific Coast population of the western snowy plover, to comply with two petitions to de-list the species and also to comply with the requirement that species status be reviewed in five-year intervals. The Service expects to complete that review next spring.

The rule is scheduled to be published Thursday in the Federal Register, and will take effect 30 days after publication.

All across America, it is Saturday, and most of the population is either sleeping in or watching TV. Well, on the Coastside, life is a little different. Many on the coast woke up early to go to the beach. Why? Because it is beach cleanup day! Today, the people of the coast got together and collected trash hidden away on the beach, so when people come, they don’t think it is all about just bringing your stuff and leaving it wherever you please.

You have to admit there has been one time where you or a friend has been to the beach, and just left something there. Well, it’s not safe for a number of reasons. By leaving stuff on the beach, you are leaving stuff that is harmful to other people, and even creatures of the ocean. For example, if you were a smoker, and you just dropped your cigarettes wherever you darn well pleased on the beach, a child could have picked it up and eaten it.

When my family and I went to Montara beach to clean part of it up, we found some of the most disgusting stuff all over it. The first thing I found was a ton of bottle caps, food wrappers, and popsicle sticks. My mom found about three large liquor bottles and many cups lodged into a crack in the rocks. Although, when it came to finding disgusting things, my dad won. He found a condom, a used condom. Listen, we’re glad that you’re using protection, but please pick it up—for the sake of all things right.

After we were all done cleaning our part of the beach, we went back to the meeting place, and turned in our bags. I learned from the people working there that 200 pounds of trash had already been turned in—all just one beach. Think about it, if 200 pounds came from one beach, how many pounds would come from the whole coast? A lot of people would shudder just thinking about it. Keep in mind also, that most of the trash you find on the beach is little bottle caps and plastic bottles. It takes a lot of small pieces of trash to come up with a big number like that.

Anyone can pick up trash! I saw a wide variety of people down on the beach today. Couples, dog walkers, and even little kids all joined together to help out. No one was in a bad mood, and everyone wanted to help. It shows that if my little sister, who’s 3, can help out, then so can you. It never hurts to show you care.

Here is the way that I think about it: If you are going to take the time to try to hide the trash that you brought down to the beach, it would probably take just as much energy to carry it up off the beach to throw it away. If you love the coast, and you love going down to visit the beach for a day, then you should care enough to pick up your trash and throw it away. It also wouldn’t take up a lot of room to bring a trash bag, so you could put your trash in there and then just carry that up. Maybe you pick out more then you came with, just to be helpful too.

No matter how big or how small the trash is your leaving on the beach, it is still trash, and still needs to be thrown away.

Here’s the final count of material collected from Montara State Beach this morning, from Kevin Stokes of MontaraBeach.com, who led the cleanup at that beach.

Number of volunteers: 24

Weight of Trash collected: 200lbs

Weight of recyclable materials: 60lbs

Trash collected included:

• 8 condoms
• 150 plastic lids
• 424 cigarette butts
• 241 plastic bags
• 72 glass bottles
• 70 plastic bags

Meanwhile, the Mercury News reports that statewide, "More than 40,000 volunteers collected an excess of 715,000 pounds of trash, of which about 62,000 pounds are recyclable, said Eben Schwartz, who runs the event for the state coastal commission. And those are just the early projections, he said."

Click "read more" to see the grossest things we found on the beach. Remember, you were warned!

Five people were swept off the breakwater at Pillar Point Harbor this weekend.  Powerful waves driven by a storm in the southern hemisphere have been hitting south-facing beaches.  The breakwater faces the south. At 10am Sunday, the National Weather Service said these waves have reduced in strength, but could continue for a couple of days:

Southerly swells will continue to impact the California coast through today. Although swell heights have decreased to 3 to 4 feet with 16 second swell periods they are still capable of producing powerful breakers in the 6 to 8 foot range along south facing beaches. These waves will break against rocks with greater force than normal…providing a hazard for unsuspecting beachgoers.

The southerly swell is expected to slowly taper off through the first part of next week.