Ventura Coastkeeper expanding water testing
Zeke Barlow
Ventura County Star
10/19/2009
As the Clean Water Act turns 37 years old this week, Ventura Coastkeeper is celebrating by greatly expanding its water testing program in the county.
“There wasn’t enough monitoring throughout Ventura County in all the watersheds,” said Jason A. Weiner, associate director for the group. “It is the only tool we have, as residents of the watersheds to which we all belong, to ensure that we can locate and stop pollution at its source.”
The group added 28 new testing sites to the ones it now monitors. The list includes the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers, the Ormond Beach watershed and storm drains around the county. Tests will be done to measure everything from phosphates and nitrates to E. coli and water temperature.
Weiner said tests will also be done to make sure the county is complying with its new stringent stormwater permit. Tests will not only be done in storm drains, but just downstream of the drains to examine the impact of the water.
