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Environment

Good Grades For San Diego Beaches

Heal The Bay's Kirsten James talks about water quality at San Diego Beaches
Erik Anderson
Heal The Bay's Kirsten James talks about water quality at San Diego Beaches
Good Grades For San Diego Beaches
San Diego County's 70 miles of beaches got pretty good marks on the latest Heal the Bay water quality report card. However, the news was not all good.

Heal The Bay's Beach Report Card
Heal The Bay's 2010-2011 Annual Beach Report Card
To view PDF files, download Acrobat Reader.

A dry sunny day is called beach weather for a reason. The conditions are beautiful and the water is most likely clean. The Santa Monica based Heal The Bay group says water quality was best when the weather was dry. Heal the Bay's Kirsten James said San Diego County water quality was significantly better than the statewide average of 80 percent.

"We saw 96 percent of the beaches in San Diego County receive A and B grades in the year-round dry weather."

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But there were also problems. Some north county communities dealt with major water fouling sewage spills. The south county also endured dirty ocean water.

"The water quality in that area is consistently bad and this is not something that we can stand aside and watch happen over a long period of time. It's something that needs to be addressed on a regular ongoing basis, " said San Diego Coastkeeper's Alicia Glassco.

Even so, there's been major progress in the region in the last decade. She wants that progress will continue, but there is concern the state might not renew funding for water quality testing at the end of the year. That could leave people without a way to see if water quality is meeting state and federal standards.