Two Whidbey beaches get an F for water quality
California environmental group's pilot project monitored only a small percentage of state beaches
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Andre Marvelle, 9, of Lakewood, pretends he’s a Jedi from “Star Wars,” and practices his fighting skills at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. In its “Beach Report Card,” the California-based Heal the Bay says the water quality at the beach is poor, and graded it an F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Andre Marvelle, 9, of Lakewood, pretends he’s a Jedi from “Star Wars,” and practices his fighting skills at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. In its “Beach Report Card,” the California-based Heal the Bay says the water quality at the beach is poor, and graded it an F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Justin Miolla, 11, of White Rock, B.C., tries out the chair he built from driftwood at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. According to Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card, the water quality at the beach is poor, and gave the beach an F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Justin Miolla, 11, of White Rock, B.C., collects driftwood for the structure that he and his brother and stepbrothers built and then named “The Waka Waka” at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. According to Heal the Bay’s 2010 End of Summer Beach Report Card, the water quality is poor at the beach, and was given a grade F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Chris De Koning, 13, carefully balances a piece of driftwood on a structure that he built with his cousin and his cousin’s stepbrothers, including Justin Miolla, 11 (center) at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Saturday. The boys, who are from White Rock, B.C., and who were camping in the area over the weekend with their families, decided to call the finished structure “The Waka Waka.” According to Heal the Bay’s End of Summer Beach Report Card, the water quality at the beach is poor, and gave the beach an F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Justin Miolla, 11, tries rollerblading on the beach, as his brother, Dillon, 10, looks for sticks to throw into the water behind him at Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. According to Heal the Bay’s End of Summer Beach Report Card, the water quality at the beach is poor, and gave the beach an F.
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Sarah Weiser / The Herald
Kestrel Carpenter, 4, of Oak Harbor, balances on a parking barrier in the lot overlooking the Oak Harbor City Beach Park on Whidbey Island on Saturday. The water quality at the beach is poor, according California-based Heal the Bay’s 2010 End of Summer Beach Report Card.
In its first “Beach Report Card,” the Santa Monica-based nonprofit organization Heal the Bay listed bacterial pollution on beaches in California, Oregon and Washington.
Last week, the report noted that 93 percent of monitored beaches in Washington received A or B grades, but three in the state, including the two on Whidbey Island, earned F grades.
The beaches are the Freeland County Park on Holmes Harbor and the west end of Oak Harbor's City Beach Park. The other polluted beach is in Kitsap County.
Island County public health Director Keith Higman said his department is well aware of the problems at local beaches and his staff indirectly provided the data for the Beach Report Card.
In Freeland, the pollution most likely is a result of failed residential septic systems along the water, and in Oak Harbor, it's probably because of bird droppings on the beach and dog feces in the stormwater drainage that flows into Oak Harbor, Higman said.
“We acknowledge these beaches. We're the ones who monitor them,” Higman said. “What their report card doesn't make clear is that a very small percentage of the state's beaches were even monitored. Where's the Duwamish Waterway Park in Seattle?”
That's not the point, said Heal the Bay microbiologist Amanda Griesbach.
“Our report card is new. We are just trying to get the word out with this pilot project,” Griesbach said. “What we hope is that people will see that more monitoring needs to be funded for all beaches. We hope our free online report eventually can be a tool to help people who are headed out to surf, swim or kayak and need to make choices about safe, clean beaches.”
The state has more than 1,300 beaches along the Salish Sea and the Pacific Ocean that are accessible by the public. Local health departments and the state Department of Ecology administer the water quality monitoring programs.
Heal the Bay examined data from 141 state beaches. Only beaches with weekly monitoring from Memorial Day to Labor Day provide the amount of data needed to assess the water quality, Griesbach said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a national group, also issues water quality reports culled from state data, Higman said.
In its “Testing the Waters” publication, the council reported that pollution has decreased on 45 beaches that were regularly monitored from the summer of 2006 through the summer of 2009.
Heal the Bay scientists also were pleased with the data they examined, Griesbach said.
But it doesn't mean much when not all beaches are tested, Higman said.
“In our county, people have to take responsibility for what goes into our water,” Higman said. “That means scoop your dog's poop and have your septic (system) tested.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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