The California State Games late Monday canceled a junior lifeguard competition scheduled for Thursday in Coronado. Organizers said the cancellation was over concerns about sewage-contaminated water.
The competition's website said organizers couldn't secure another site to host the competition.
“It’s unfortunate and disappointing to the athletes who are competing in the 2022 Cal State Game Jr. Lifeguard competition in Coronado," the games' executive director Sandi Hill said in a statement. "Our permit was canceled due to concerns of water quality.”
The event was supposed to take place Thursday through Sunday, and included children ages 9 through 17. The game's other 22 events, including archery, field hockey and track and field, will continue. Hill said the junior lifeguard competition will return next summer.
This is the second beach event that's been canceled in Coronado in the past two weeks. Last week, the city's annual Fourth of July Rough Water Swim was canceled. Mayor Richard Bailey blames the county's new water-safety testing method for the cancelations.
"What we've seen over this past summer has been that the county has shut down or issued advisories for our beaches one-third of the summer days so far, which is simply unprecedented," he said. "And it's not because there's been any change to the underlying environmental conditions."
In May, the county unveiled a new water quality test called droplet-digital polymerase chain reaction, or ddPCR, that is more sensitive. The DNA-based test led to more water closures stemming from pollutants from raw sewage spilling into the ocean from the Tijuana River.
The new test detects both dead and live bacteria in water. The old cultured test only detects live bacteria. But county environmental health officials say there has been no change in what the state considers unsafe bacteria levels in the water.
“This new testing method is more accurate and really gives people information as to how contaminated the water is and how clean is the water,” said Elise Rothschild, the county's retired director of Environmental Health.
Since July 5, however, Coronado hasn't had any advisories, and county officials are puzzled as to why game officials decided to cancel the competition.
Bailey said he wants the county to go back to the tests it has been using for the past 25 years, because it sets a baseline everyone understands. The county is the first in California to use the rapid DNA-based test.
"Because there's been such a large discrepancy between the new test and the old test — there's such a large discrepancy between the county's own testing records this summer compared to last summer, it's very difficult to have that question (about water safety) answered," Bailey said.
The confusion may also stem from a new three-tier signage system adopted July 1. Under the old system, there were two sign options: an advisory if contamination is suspected and a beach closure if the contamination is a threat to public health.
The new system adds a third option, beach warning, which warns when a southerly swell is pushing contaminated water from south of the border to the north, creating a risk of illness but not one serious enough to close beaches down.
The third option is mainly for South Bay beaches.
