News from the . . .
Water Quality Protection Program for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Clean Water and Recreation Through Volunteer Monitoring Programs, Recreational Users Can Protect Their Favorite Areas
There are countless reasons to live along California's Central Coast. The ocean is beautiful, it hosts a phenomenal variety of marine life, and it's fun!
People who enjoy the water also have a stake in keeping it clean. Surfers can fall ill from contact with unhealthy water; those who fish see steelhead populations diminish when sediment fills spawning grounds; and beach visitors are finding beaches closed due to unsafe levels of contaminants in the water. (In 1996 there were over 3,500 closings and advisories at the nation's beaches.)1
Some volunteer monitoring groups in the Monterey
Bay National Marine Sanctuary area include:
Surfrider Foundation · Coastal Watershed Council
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
Watershed Institute · Various area high schools
(Note: see Spring 1997 issue for more information on volunteer efforts.)
Surfrider Foundation and WQ Testing
Surfrider Foundation, an international non-profit group, is dedicated to the protection, preservation, and restoration of the world's oceans, waves, and beaches. Surfrider initiated its "Blue Water Task Force" (BWTF), in which local beach users monitor coastal pollution and publish their results, in 1991. Motivated by the fact that salt water enthusiasts often contract viral and bacterial infections from swimming in polluted waters, the Task Force carries out water quality testing, does street gutter stenciling ("Don't DumpFlows to Bay"), and provides educational materials for teachers and students.
Volunteers with Surfrider's Santa Cruz chapter have been taking weekly water samples at locations throughout Santa Cruz County since early 1994. Within twenty-four hours, BWTF test results (for levels of fecal coliform bacteria) are interpreted and entered into a database, and then posted on the group's hotline (408/476-POOP) and on its web page.
"Because we do consistent sampling, we can find potential pollution sources quickly," explains Surfrider's Gary Pezzi. "We do see changes in periods of higher rain fall," he adds. "High levels of runoff tends to mean high levels of fecal coliform bacteria, because a lot of this pollution comes from upstream sources."
Polluted urban runoff, sewage overflows, and treatment plant malfunctions are among the most common causes of beach pollution. In 1995, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project conducted the nation's first large-scale epidemiological study to investigate possible adverse health effects associated with swimming in ocean waters contaminated by urban runoff. The study found an increased risk of illness for swimmers bathing near storm drains; symptoms included fever, chills, eye discharge, earaches, stomach pain, and respiratory illness. This study serves to confirm years of anecdotal evidence from surfers and swimmers.
Because of the problems recreational water users can experience, a strong incentive exists for them to organize programs to monitor and improve water quality. The Monterey Bay Sanctuary region has many such volunteer monitoring groups.
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