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News An Online Tool to Check South Bay Water Quality
Beach goers in San Diego's South Bay have an excellent online tool to estimate how the water quality at local beaches is impacted by the Tijuana River.
by Serge Dedina
Beach goers in San Diego's South Bay have an excellent online tool to estimate how the water quality at local beaches is impacted by the Tijuana River. Water from the river has such high levels of contamination that anytime it impacts the water at South Bay beaches, it represents a significant health threat. In 2006, the Tijuana River was responsible for 92% of all beach closures in San Diego County. Already in 2008, as of mid-February, Borderfield State Beach and Tijuana Sloughs has been closed due to sewage-contaminated water from the river for 45 days, Imperial Beach for 31 days, and Coronado for 7 days.
Researchers at Scripps Institute of Oceanography have developed the San Diego Coastal Ocean Observing System (SDCOOS) with funds from the California Clean Beaches Initiative to study how coastal currents can affect the water quality at South Bay beaches. SDCOOS is the best tool to estimate how the Tijuana River impacts coastal water quality at South Bay beaches from Borderfield up through Coronado.
The SDCOOS monitoring system uses an array of high-resolution radars to provide a real-time spatial map of coastal ocean currents around the Tijuana River. On an hourly basis, 100 particles are released at the rivermouth and tracked for a 3 day period to provide a better estimate of where the river plume may be impacting the coast. The online "Plume Tracker" displays an animated model these current flows. New positions within the region are updated hourly and the color of the particle represents the age of the particle since it was released. Points along the map from the border fence to Coronado turn from black to red when the model shows that the Tijuana River flow is affecting beach water quality at those locations. A chart further down the webpage shows how many particles in the model were tracked to specific beach locations and the corresponding contamination or "plume" potential. This data, along with that from a flow gauge in the Tijuana River, allows San Diego County Department of Environmental Health to proactively warn South Bay ocean users of contamination events by closing local beaches, rather than wait the requisite 24 hours for bacterial analysis of water samples.
All beach users in the South Bay should check the SDCOOS site before hitting the surf. Our health depends on it.
For more information please visit the SDCOOS site: http://www.sdcoos.org
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