http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/america-8217-most-polluted-beaches-don-8217-t-140000615.html Did your break make the list?
Why? Everyone knows Southern California has a problem with water quality on their beaches. Antiquated sewer systems that can't handle any rainfall....not unlike drivers on the I-5.
"Lindsey Lohan! Oh.... wait... dirtiest BEACHes, now I get it." First comment under the story, wish I could take credit! So true stinkbug, as soon as a drop hits the windshield out there the whole interstate lights up like the 4th of July with brake lights.
good call on the irony. the state that preaches going green and big gov has the dirtiest water and the worst economic condition...a real model for the union
California has a very long coastline with many, many beaches. Of the 11 repeat offenders listed, 4 were in the small and confined area around the town of Avalon on Catalina Island. 6 spots were along Doheny State Beach located between Dana Point and San Clemente. Doheny is a long time offender. But I'm surprised that several others were not listed. Such as the beach where the Calif portion of the notorious Tijuana River empties into the ocean, Surfrider Beach in Malibu, and McGrath State Beach at the mouth of the Santa Clara River in Ventura County. Run-off in creeks or rivers emptying in to the ocean are a common source of pollution. During much of the year in SoCal, rains are infrequent, so when it does rain, all the accumulated, built-up crap and chemicals are suddenly washed into the sea. Even the Rincon point break south of Santa Barbara has had problems from the septic tanks of the nearby homes.
make sure you're looking at the list right, they are saying the 2 DE beaches hold a 5 star rating for being clean. The "repeat offenders" are the dirty beaches
the ones listed must either be really bad...or that list is incomplete, incorrect, or biased Grossest place I've ever surfed in the US is Chevron jetty in Los angeles (near el porto): rainbow slick and the water smells like petroleum...the fact that area isn't listed is highly suspect. There's also a sewage treatment plant nearby that occasionally has problems and the ballona "creek" just north of that, which concentrates all the street drains in LA into one giant ocean outpour. I got ear-aches every couple of weeks when living there. (outside the US, Tijuana, rosarito and ensenada in baja mex have raw sewage visibly piped into the ocean...the water literally stinks) Any pier that has a lot of birds on it is going to raise the bacteria rate significantly...especially if pigeons are living in it.
The catch is that the analysis is based on government testing and disclosure of the results. For example, if you take a nice progressive state like, say, South Carolina. The state may decide that they would rather allocate scarce taxpayer funds to voter id checks rather than water testing. Other beach areas may decide that disclosing too much may be bad for business. I took a quick look at the methodology for Jerz and there seemed to be some potential loopholes. In this type of survey, it is indeed garbage in, garbage out (sorry bout that but i have a pun control issue)
Well that's also due to the fact that every Tom, **** and Harry moved to sunny, dream-filled Southern California and the place just got overloaded. It did quite well for a long time. And up north aways is doing just fine these days. Is San Francisco the coolest, bestest city in America...? Maybe....... Oh, dirtiest beach, as in the sand area: Seaside Heights, NJ Water quality: Imperial Beach, CA
san fran is also now one of the most expensive cities to live in...and the water isn't much warmer that what you'd find in oregon or washington (f*cking cold!...yearound) like I said in my first post, Tijuana and the beaches south of there have little to no pollution rules...you can frequently smell raw sewage when surfing there. Imperial beach is the next beach north of TJ, so, of course, the water quality is going to be among the worst, if not THE worst, in the US
