2:21 pm | Jul 07, 2009
OC beach report: Spills, closures decline
Sewage spills in Orange County dropped for the sixth year in a row and are at their lowest since 2000, part of a continuing trend toward cleaner beaches, the Orange County Register reports.
The Register’s story is based on the Orange County Health Care Agency’s annual water-quality report. Laguna Beach had the largest sewage spills in 2008, while Newport Beach had the most swimming closure, totaling about six beach-mile days.
Locally, Sunset Beach is the only only OC beach that has not been posted for any bacteriological violations from 1999 to 2008, according to the report. The Seal Beach/Surfside area was posted or closed for 1.3 beach-mile days during 2008, compared to 0.5 days the previous year. (A beach mile-day is the distance of beach posted or closed times the number of days of posting or closure.)
”There is much more awareness of spill prevention now amongst Orange County cities, and this probably contributes to the improvements we see for beach health,” Larry Honeybourne, director of the county’s Ocean Water Protection Program, tells the Register.
Read Ben Young Landis’ story here.
Browse the entire report online here (pdf format).
Posted by donna | beaches, environment
