he San Diego Bay and the north part of San Diego County
are fed by a series of rivers that are short by California standards: the
San Luis Rey, San Diego, San Margarita and Sweetwater Rivers. These rivers
and the streams that feed into them make up the arteries in our region's
watershed. What flows into and through them ends up on local beaches, bays
and wetlands. How our natural arteries are doing and what exactly is flowing
into them has been the focus of several reports last summer concerning the
importance of coastal zones for both the economy and our health.
Three reports, Testing the Waters V, State of the
Coasts and Changing the Course of California's Water, indicate
trashed beaches and contaminated water are degrading ecosystems and costing
states millions in tourist and commercial revenues, as well as jobs. In
undeveloped areas, the rivers have been heavily mined for sand and gravel.
In urbanized areas, the streams have been channeled and are vulnerable to
illegal dumping. County beaches are impacted by local sources of pollution
as well as by sewage-contaminated waters flowing north from Mexico's Tijuana
River.
Population growth has far outpaced Tijuana's ability
to process sewage, so an average of 3 million gallons of raw sewage are
diverted into river and ocean waters every day. Warning signs are now permanently
posted from the south end of Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach south to the
border. The International Treatment Plant project is progressing and the
advanced primary treatment works portion is expected to be on-line in December
'96.Swimmers can contract illnesses from several pathogens
that may be found in polluted waters. Viruses are believed to be the major
cause of swimming-associated diseases and are responsible for gastroenteritis
and hepatitis, the two most common swimming-associated diseases worldwide.
Gastroenteritis can also be caused by bacteria and is a common term for
a variety of diseases that can have one or all of the following symptoms:
diarrhea, stomachache, vomiting, nausea, headache and fever. Other bacterial
diseases that can be contracted by swimmers include: salmonellosis, shigellosis,
and infection caused by E. coli (a toxigenic type of fecal coliform bacteria).
Other microbial pathogens found at varying concentrations in recreational
waters include amoeba and protozoa, which can cause giardiasis, amoebic
dysentery, skin rashes and "pink eye" condition. AIDS and many
other diseases are not carried by enteric pathogens (those that live in
the human intestine) in contaminated water.
The region's climate - usually dry and temperate with
sporadic heavy rains - has raised particular concerns about the consequences
of "first flushes," i.e., the initial rains after a dry period,
which wash anything and everything down the streets and storm drains and
into the surf and beaches. Researchers are trying to determine just how
much of the water quality problems associated with runoff occur in the first
hours of the first storm of the season. The results could shape efforts
to control pollution. San Diego County, 18 cities and the San Diego Unified
Port District, which share a single stormwater pollution permit, are expected
to receive a new permit from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control
Board, outlining additional efforts that will have to be made to reduce
pollution in runoff.Testing the Waters V, the Natural Resources Defense
Council's (NRDC) fifth annual beach survey, reports 910 California beach
closures in 1994, 336 of which were directly or indirectly related to polluted
runoff. Each year, tourist expenditures along the California coast total
$38 billion. Beach closures are one example of how polluted runoff puts
these tourist dollars at risk. According to the report, closing a San Diego
beach for two days costs the local and state economy $30,525. These costs
were determined by applying a "lost use value" per person per
day to the number of people denied use of the beach each day of closure.
The losses represent what users, on average, would have been willing to
pay to use the beach had it not been closed. This figure does not include
any consideration of economics losses to businesses that serve the beach
or beach users. State of the Coasts, the Coast Alliance's state-by-state
analysis of America's coastal resources, also underlines the relationship
between a healthy coastal environment and a healthy economy. For example:
This report shows that coastal land use regulations
in the Pacific Coast states, "have shaped, not prohibited development.
In the 15 years following passage of California's Coastal Act, San Diego
County was the second highest-ranking county in the country in the number
of new multi-unit residential construction projects." (Source: Building
Along America's Coast: 20 years of Building Permits, 1970-1989, U.S. Department
of Commerce)
"Having served as a coastal commissioner during
my time in local government, I have had the opportunity to see firsthand
how the CZMA can improve both the environment and the economy of coastal
communities," he writes. "By sharing decision-making authority
with those locally-elected officials who actually implement a given law
in their state or community, the CZMA has played a major role in brokering
compromises between the need for conservation of sensitive coastal areas
and the demands of rapidly growing and developing coastal communities."
He continues, "I am planning to draft legislation to require coastal
authorities to publicly post the level of toxins and contaminants present
in the ocean, so that people can make informed decisions about their recreational
activities." A third report, Changing the Course of California's
Water, published by The Lindsay Museum and funded by the U.S. EPA, focuses
solely on California's polluted runoff problem. Like its national counterparts,
this report also indicates strong linkages between the California environment
and economy. According to the report, 50 to 80 percent of all water quality
problems in California are due to stormwater pollution. At risk are such
coastal economic engines as the 140 million annual visitor days logged at
beaches statewide and the annual $500 million Southern California sport
fishing business.
To prevent watershed pollution:
Carolyn Chase is chairperson of the City of San Diego Waste Management
Advisory Board, a member of the Peñasquitos Canyon Citizens Advisory
Council and recipient of the mayor's 1994 Spirit of San Diego Award for
the Environment.
he 1994 International Coastal Cleanup Results report
from the Center for Marine Conservation documents the types of debris that
threaten marine species. The data is the result of a world-wide collection
effort performed by 215,000 volunteers. They covered 7,992 miles of coasts,
beaches and waterways in 61 countries. More than 8 million pieces of trash
were collected over a three-hour period, weighing in at more than 4 million
pounds.
