Governor vetos water quality funding

This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated any on-going funding for the implementation of a water quality bill in a line item veto for the recently-approved state budget, according to Heal the Bay.
Water quality monitoring is the latest casualty of environmental programs due the state's billion dollar deficit this year.
In the last decade, such water quality monitoring has been funded by AB411, a state law that created public health bacteria standards and monitoring requirements for ocean water quality at California public beaches during high-traffic summer season.
The nearly $1 million program for the state's 15 coastal counties stands to be threatened of possibly cut out.
Although new funding might not be coming our way, beaches all over California saw another clean summer, according to Heal the Bay's end of summer report card.
About 91 percent of the 514 beaches monitored statewide this summer received A or B grades, which indicated excellent or very good water quality. Those grades are essentially the same as last year when 92 percent of sites got good grades.
Two years of drought conditions contributed to the positive results statewide, because the dry conditions limited the amount of urban runoff, the biggest source of pollution, according to the group.
Also, infrastructure enhancements also played a part, funded by the state's $100 million Clean Beach Initiative, to improve grades at beaches.
Los Angeles County still leads the state for bad grades though.
According to Heal the Bay, nearly one out of five beaches tracked in the county received F grades, 21 out of 109 sites monitored this summer.
Despite some modest improvements, Long Beach still suffers the worst water quality in the state, largely because it sits at the terminus of the contaminant-plagued Los Angeles River. With nearly half of its 25 monitored beaches receiving C to F grades, the city of Long Beach has undertaken proactive source tracking and abatement measures.
Water quality dipped at Santa Monica Bay beaches this summer as well, with 86 percent of 63 monitored beaches receiving A or B grades, compared to 93 percent last year. Bay beaches receiving D or F grades this summer include Malibu‟s fabled Surfrider Beach, Paradise Cove, Solstice Canyon at Dan Blocker Beach and Marie Canyon at Puerco Beach. Further south in the bay, Venice City Beach at Topsail, Dockweiler
Beach at Ballona Creek and Santa Monica beaches at the Santa Monica Pier and at Wilshire Boulevard also received D or F marks.
If Los Angeles County beaches are removed from the grading curve, state water quality marks improve dramatically. Nearly 97 percent of the 405 beaches outside the county earned A and B grades, with only six locations receiving failing grades.
Heal the Bay assigns an A to F letter grade to beaches along the California coast every summer, based on levels of bacterial pollution reported from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The Beach Report Card is based on the routine monitoring of beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border by local health agencies and dischargers. Water samples are analyzed for bacteria that indicate pollution from numerous sources. The better the grade a beach receives, the lower the risk of illness to ocean users.
Orange County boasted outstanding water quality this summer, improving upon already excellent grades, with 98 percent of its 104 beaches receiving A or B grades. Doheny Beach at San Juan Creek and Poche Creek Beach in San Clemente were the only two locations to receive D or F grades. Historical trouble spots in Huntington and the Doheny beaches maintained their improved A and B marks.