78 of 79 county beaches score high on water-quality evaluation
Robert Krier
San Diego Union-Tribune
10/01/2009
Nearly every beach in the county made the honor roll of an environmental group's widely respected water-quality report card that was released yesterday.
Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay gave an A or B to 78 of 79 monitored sites in the region.
“This is the first time I've seen across-the-board excellent water quality,” said James Alamillo, spokesman for the organization. “It's just unheard of.”
A local environmental group, however, says the report card is nothing to write home about. The glowing grades may be the result of low storm-water runoff during a drought and a reduction in monitoring stations because of state budget cuts.
“This is valuable information, but you can't take it too seriously,” said Bruce Reznik, director of San Diego BayKeeper. “Things have been getting better. But it's been a dry year, and if you're doing less monitoring, you'll have fewer closures and higher grades.”
Alamillo conceded the lack of spring rains helped the coastal water quality, but he attributed the high marks to work by local agencies to clean up trouble spots.
