State water panel to vote on $2 million for monitoring beaches
The cut devastated some of the water quality monitoring programs in 17 counties along California's coast and the San Francisco Bay, forcing them to find alternative funds or quit monitoring the surf.
At the governor's request, the State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to vote today on whether to distribute about $2 million to coastal counties over the next two fiscal years to keep the water quality program alive.
The $984,000 earmarked to help these counties pay for regular beach monitoring in the busy season between April and October was cut in a line-item veto by Schwarzenegger last month. Local environmental health officials say the program, signed into law in 1997, has helped identify sources of fecal contamination, reduced dangerous bacteria levels and kept the public informed on when to stay out of the water because of unhealthy bacteria levels.
"The public really, really likes this program,"
said Larry Honeybourne, program manager with the environmental division
of the Orange County Health Care Agency. Orange County receives about
$208,000 a year from the state for water quality monitoring.
San
Diego County was one of the hardest hit by the veto, losing $302,000,
which wiped out its dry season water quality program. Without the state
funding, the program shut down for the final weeks of October, ending
warnings about polluted beaches and daily e-mail and podcast water
quality updates.
Coastal officials "were caught by surprise
that the governor blue-penciled it out," said San Diego County Board of
Supervisors Chairman Greg Cox.
Cox wrote letters and
encouraged local officials to press for restoration of the program,
which keeps tabs on 55 San Diego County shoreline locations during the
summer months.
"We have an obligation to our own residents and
to the people who come to San Diego to guarantee that our beaches are
safe to use," said Cox, who plans to testify before the state water
board today.
Analysis of water samples collected from 86
locations in Los Angeles County can continue year-round without state
grants, said Eric Edwards, chief environmental health specialist with
the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's water quality
program.
State officials describe California's water quality monitoring as the most rigorous in the nation.
Environmental groups condemned the elimination of the funding, arguing that it put beachgoers at risk.
Heal the Bay and other organizations have lobbied the governor and state agencies to restore the funds.
Although
the water board's vote could offer a short-term solution to keep the
surf safe for beachgoers, environmental advocates are still concerned
about the program's long-term prospects.
Monitoring the ocean
"is really necessary for public health," said Kirsten James, Heal the
Bay's water quality director. "We don't want to see any gaps in public
funding."
If state water officials approve the resolution,
about $1 million this fiscal year and $1 million the next would come
from Proposition 13 bond funds designated for water quality projects,
said William L. Rukeyser, State Water Resources Control Board
spokesman. Testing is vital, he said, "because it either validates that
the actions that we've taken are paying off or it acts as . . . an
early warning."
The board has distributed about $100 million
in grants for projects to help clean the coast, such as netting to keep
birds -- and bird droppings -- off Baby Beach in Orange County.
The
cut, one of $510 million worth of programs deleted from the
$145-billion state budget, "was in no way any statement about this
program not being worthwhile or important," said H.D. Palmer, a deputy
director in the state Department of Finance.
Rather, the governor was laboring to build up state budget reserves and gird for the cost of fighting wildfires, he said.
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