The results from the Coastal Watershed Council’s Snapshot Day are in, and it’s not a pretty picture.
On May 2, roughly 80 volunteers with the Coastal Watershed Council dipped jars and Whirl-pak bags into the waters of more than 80 streams, sloughs, creeks and storm drains in Santa Cruz County and pulled samples for testing. Now the results of the 10th annual Snapshot Day are in, and it seems that two local waterways are in less than excellent health, for at Corcoran Lagoon and the mouth of Aptos Creek E. coli counts measured 40 times higher than the state’s water standard objectives.
In Corcoran Lagoon, lab analysis revealed E. coli levels of 17,329 mpn (most probable number), a count of individual bacterium per 100-milliliter sample of water. Last year the count measured just 185 mpn, well below the state’s E. coli objective of 400 mpn. At Aptos Creek, tests revealed 19,863 mpn of E. coli this year, up from just 259 mpn in 2006 (later year’s data is unavailable).
Something clearly is up besides the numbers themselves, and Nik Strong-Cvetich, associate director with the Coastal Watershed Council, speculates that a strong local water bird presence on or just before May 2 resulted in the high counts (E. coli may dwell in the bowels and feces of birds). The county’s Environmental Health Department will soon review the results.
Volunteers are wanted for a May 30 training session for the Coastal Watershed Council’s Urban Watch program. For more information, visit the Web at www.coastal-watershed.org or call 831-464-9200.
