Cowells has been named the dirtiest beach in CA in 2015. Instead liking a facebook post or complaining about how terrible the situation is once a year, help us clean up Cowells for good! We are all volunteers at Surfider who want to get Cowells off this list! Join us! Contact us or get more info on our website at: https://santacruz.surfrider.org/cleanupcowells/.
Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel
SANTA CRUZ >> Kids in the Santa Cruz Little Guard program got to go into the water for their first day Wednesday. But not at Cowell Beach thanks to high levels of bacteria, something that earned the beach the top spot on the “Beach Bummer” list for the second consecutive year.
“That’s our commitment to our kids and their parents, that we’re not going to subject them to water that the county is saying is not good quality,” said Dannettee Shoemaker, director of parks and recreation for Santa Cruz.
The beach has been home to a sign warning beachgoers about elevated bacteria levels since June 8. The elevated bacteria levels along with consistently high levels in the last year put Cowell Beach at the top of the list of beaches that have the dirtiest water on the West Coast. The beach was ranked by Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit that advocates and monitors water quality for beaches in Washington, Oregon and California.
The organization puts out its annual “Beach Bummer” list and a report that ranks the beaches with the worst water quality. For six years, Cowell has made the list, occupying the top spot this year and last.
“Is it troublesome that it’s made the list as the top spot? Yes,” said James Alamillo, a spokesman for Heal the Bay. “But the bright side is there’s a working group there that is looking to understand the problem” and fix it.
The response in Santa Cruz County came in the form of a working group comprised of the city and county of Santa Cruz, the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, the Coastal Watershed Council, the Sierra Club and Save the Waves Coalition. The group meets regularly to discuss the water quality issue and form solutions, said Nik Strong-Cvetich, executive director for Save the Waves.
“We want to have a good mix of a team because that’s how we get the most transparency and validity,” Strong-Cvetich said.
Among actions undertaken by the group is steady monitoring and analysis of the bacteria levels. On the city’s part, an outfall from Neary Lagoon leading to the beach is now sealed during the dry season to prevent any stagnant water in the pipe from reaching the beach.
Data collected by the city and county show that the high bacteria level in the water now is largely from the environment and not from human feces, Strong-Cvetch said.
“I’m not saying it’s not there, I’m saying we don’t see a lot of human contribution to the data,” he said.
Despite the data, Alamillo cautioned the working group against ruling out human feces as a source.
“It can falsely put you in a position where you’re going after certain sources and areas and not others,” Alamillo said. READ THE REST