Community Corner
Coronado Beaches Post High Marks for Water Quality
San Diego beaches fare well on the list though sewage spills had a negative effect on grades for Imperial Beach and border coastal areas.
Coronado did not make the honor roll on Heal the Bay's 23rd annual Beach Report Card report, despite posting high marks on the environmental group's ranking of beaches statewide.
The honor roll was dominated by North County beaches. The southernmost beach that made the list was Point Loma, near the treatment plant.
Yet Coronado received mostly outstanding grades in four areas tested – two on the bay side and two on the ocean side. Beaches statewide were rated during three periods, the summer dry season, winter dry season and wet weather (listed here in order.)
In Coronado the sites, and accompanying grades, were:
- Avenida del Sol – the grades were A, A+ and A+ for the respective seasons.
- The Silver Strand – A, A+ and B.
- The Glorietta Bay boat launch – A (bay areas were ranked only for summer dry season)
- Tidelands Park off Mullinix Drive - B
Areas to the south, from Imperial Beach to the Tijuana Slough and Border Field State Park, fared well in summer's dry season, receiving A's except for the Tijuana River Mouth, which received a C.
During the wet season, however the grades plummeted. Two IB beach areas, the pier and the south end of Seacoast Drive, were saddled with Fs, as was the river mouth.
Three others in IB and the South Bay received D's for rainy periods.
Overall, the beach water quality in San Diego County during the summer season was among the best in the state.
Heal the Bay, of Santa Monica, assigned letter grades based on levels of bacterial pollutants in the water, to 71 beaches in the county; 68 were given an A for the period from last April to October – up 3 percent from last year's report.
The county's 96 percent A rating outpaced the trend for the rest of the state, where 85 percent of the 441 beaches received the high mark.
“Summer and winter swimming at San Diego beaches (have) probably never been better in recent history than now,” Heal the Bay Urban Programs Manager James Alamillo said. “(With) the combination of low rainfall, projects implemented to control dry-weather discharges and greater public education, the county and its municipalities seemingly have runoff issues under control.”
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for sewage," Alamillo said. “Once again, San Diego led all California coastal counties in the volume of sewage spilled.”
The beach at the mouth of the Tijuana River took the 10th spot on Heal the Bay's annual “Beach Bummers List” of the 10 most polluted beaches in the state. Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island topped the list, according to the report.
Border beaches also were impacted by untreated sewage that spilled into the Tijuana River or discharged into the ocean just south of the U.S.- Mexico border.
The spill led to 10 beach closures from the Silver Strand to the border, and the four southernmost beaches were closed for 139 days during the study's reporting period.
– City News Service contributed to this report.
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