Program Overview
Program Overview
The City of Coronado participates in water quality monitoring programs locally and as part of regional, collaborative efforts to improve water quality for the San Diego Bay Watershed and San Diego Bay. The programs include monitoring in the receiving waters (e.g., bay, beaches) and storm drain outfalls to these receiving waters. In addition, water quality monitoring is also conducted by the County of San Diego Department of Environmental Health, the City of San Diego, and the San Diego Bay Watershed Copermittees. Key monitoring programs include:
North Beach Municipal Storm Drain Outfall Monitoring Program
As part of County-wide requirements, municipal storm drain outfall monitoring promotes the elimination of dry weather flows from storm drain outfalls. The City's municipal storm drain outfall monitoring program includes eight locations inspected twice per year during dry weather conditions. Parameters monitored include general chemistry, metals, and bacterial indicators.
The program also monitors flow improvement quality as it exits the storm drain outfalls during rain events. Testing is conducted once per year between October 1 and April 30 and includes general chemistry, metals, and bacterial indicators.
Beach & Bay Water Quality Monitoring Program
In late 2015, the City initiated a beach and bay monitoring program for bacterial indicators in conjunction with the Port of San Diego to monitor beach water quality at two locations: 1) Tidelands Park (Port of San Diego) and 2) North Beach (Coronado). In addition, this program includes reviewing data from long-standing beach water quality testing conducted by the County of San Diego at 3) Glorietta Bay, and by the City of San Diego at 4) Silver Strand State Beach and 5) Avenida Del Sol in Coronado.
These locations are tested weekly year-round for bacterial indicators except for the Glorietta Bay site; this site is tested only from April 1 to October 31. The Tidelands Park and North Beach sites are tested three times per year during rain events.
San Diego Bay Watershed Program
As a member of the San Diego Bay Watershed, the City of Coronado participates in regional monitoring programs required by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board in Order R9-2013-0001, a Municipal Permit for discharges from the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) to waters of the state. The Municipal Permit requires the owners of storm drain systems, like the City of Coronado, to implement management programs to limit discharges of non-stormwater runoff and pollutants from the storm drain systems. The Municipal Permit requires the development of Water Quality Improvement Plans with extensive inspection and monitoring programs. The San Diego Bay Watershed Water Quality Improvement Plan includes additional water quality monitoring programs that can be found at Project Clean Water.
Laboratory Reports
Beach and bay water quality testing includes bacterial indicators: total coliform, fecal coliform, and enterococci. The bacterial indicator tests are generally used to assess water for potential unsatisfactory and unsafe conditions for recreational use.