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New Plan Would Protect Water off La Jolla Shores

There are some unique creatures living in the waters off La Jolla Shores Beach. A new management plan would protect and improve those waters. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

New Plan Would Protect Water off La Jolla Shores

There are some unique creatures living in the waters off La Jolla Shores Beach. A new management plan would protect and improve those waters. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The waters off La Jolla Shores are called aqua gems for their biological richness. But storm water runoff is a major threat to the waters since pollutants such as metals and bacteria wash into the sea. Diminished water quality would hurt the threatened black sea bass, harbor seals and other creatures. Kate Hanley with San Diego Coastkeeper says the state has designated two La Jolla sites as areas of special biological significance or ASBS.

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Hanley: In minimizing the impacts of storm water pollution into the ASBS we're allowing it to be not only a healthy ecosystem for marine wildlife that lives, that resides in the area but also for human users of the resource as well.

Coastkeeper, Scripps Institution of Oceanography , UCSD, and the City of San Diego have put together a draft coastal watershed plan to improve water quality for the two sites. Public comments on the plan will be accepted through the end of August. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.