Surfing

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Me surf dirty waves

By Elisabeth Gause

March 6, 2006

San Diego--As a surfer, I heed the warning “Don’t go into the water for 72 hours after a rain” and, since the neurons in my brain actually fire, I’m pretty clear on avoiding the water after a sewage spill. But there are some surfers who will wade into fetid, brown water to pound on their chests and bellow, “Me surf dirty waves.”

The Tarzan surfers were out last week after the rain, and I asked one of them why. “What’s the big deal?” he responded. “Fish shit in there every day.” His cavalier attitude left me contemplating the water quality in our beloved ocean. As someone who practically lives in the water, I vowed to investigate the seemingly philosophical question: If things are always bad--as is the case with parts of the San Diego coast--does it really matter if things get worse?

There are three main sources of ocean pollution: nature, sewage, and storm water. Natural pollution consists of waterfowl, decaying vegetation and marine mammals—and we aren’t getting rid of the seals, so get over it. Sewage is all that stuff you flush down your commode and never want to see again, let alone swim in. It’s the City’s responsibility to treat sewage before releasing it into recreational waters. (We’ll get to the City’s report card in a moment.) Then there’s storm water. This is all our doing, people. Before I elaborate, let me just say that 90% of beach closings are due to runoff. That means we do it to ourselves. Let’s see how masochistic we are.

According to San Diego Coastkeeper, one trillion gallons of runoff reach Southern California waters every year. “Trillion” doesn’t look like much, so let me write it this way: Imagine 1,000,000,000,000 milk jugs full of bacteria sloshing into your bathtub.

So, who’s in the tub? We have protozoa like Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium to give us diarrhea, E. coli and Salmonella to offer us gastroenteritis, and even staphylococcus, of which one form is the source for flesh eating bacteria. And, oh yeah, we can’t forget all the viruses that gift us with sinus, ear and gastrointestinal infections, including enteroviruses, which can lead to meningitis.

Here’s the kicker: All those things can be or are in the water at all times. So Tarzan surfers have a point when they say that we can get sick at any time. But risk skyrockets after a rainfall because the bacterial concentrations increase by 100-10,000. For an analogy, imagine cars as bacteria and the highway as the ocean. There are always cars on the highway, but when do you not want to drive? When it’s super crowded after work. (Work is rain.)

The rain itself is not the problem. It’s all the stuff it picks up on its way downhill, heading towards the ocean, that’s insidious. Technically, it’s called runoff; I call it karma. Here’s why: You spray pesticide to kill the varmints that feed on your roses, then the rain falls, floods into the street, plunges into storm drains, and pours right into the ocean. Later, you go swimming, gulp down a little of that tainted water and get sick.

So why wait 72 hours if any of this can happen at any time? Because bacteria concentration levels reduce dramatically with time due to dilution, predation and UV exposure-death. Using the traffic analogy again, think if you just waited one hour after work—fewer cars, fewer accidents, fewer headaches.

Okay, say you’re bullheaded and you just don’t want to wait, what breaks should you absolutely avoid?  “Stay away from outlets and drains” is the eternal cry that cabooses the 72-hour warning.  Now seriously, when I read the list of "outlets" in the San Diego County 2004 Beach Closings and Advisory Report, there were so many that I thought I was at the outlet mall in Carlsbad, so I’m giving you a short list:

ü       Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Reserve/Border Fields State Park (IB)

ü       Children’s Pool (LJ)

ü       Windansea (LJ)

ü       Dog Beach (OB)

ü       Mission Bay

ü       Moonlight Beach (Encinitas)

Now I must pause for a public service announcement that Donna Frye would really like you to hear. I’m giving you the See-Dick-Run version: The sewer system and storm system are separate systems. One (the sewer) gets treated before finding its way into the ocean; the other (the storm) goes directly into the ocean—untreated! “So the bottom line is,” Councilmember Frye explains, “if you don't want to end up swimming or surfing in it, don't let it go in the storm drain.” For you clueless sorts, the curbside drains with cute dolphins painted over them are storm drains—don’t throw your Slurpee cup in them.

Think Blue, a campaign started by the City (and now used as a model by the US EPA,) offers suggestions on what you can do to reduce pollution. (See ThinkBluesd.org) The City is also doing their part. They’ve been cleaning up our sewer system, which desperately needed it.

In 2004, 7 million gallons of waste spilled into our waters—that’s a big improvement over the 45 million that the City averaged annually from 1996-2001. Also, we didn’t always have an “adequate measuring” system, which meant the City had difficulty tracking major spills, allowing them to last several days! But in recent years, the City has since spent $187 million to replace sewer lines and implement cleaning and preventative measures. As a result, we have decreased sewer spills by 70%.

Finally, I understand that there is always an exception to every rule. Lisa, a usually well-behaved surfer, reminds us that sometimes “perfect, naked little right barrels are too good to pass up.” So yeah, if there are barrels and you really really REALLY want to go, GO!  Just drink a lot of OJ afterwards.

Three best surfing organizations websites to check out for water quality:

ü       Surfrider at www.surfrider.org

ü       Wetsand partners with Heal the Bay at wetsand.com

ü       Surfline links to www.earth911.org

Two good websites to bookmark and check:

ü       Department of Environmental Health (www.sdcounty.ca.gov/deh/)

ü       San Diego Coast Keeper (formerly San Diego Bay Keeper) (sdbaykeeper.org, sdcoastkeeper.org)

See ThinkBluesd.org for terrestrial tips on how to reduce water pollution.

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Elisabeth Gause is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Vyuz.