Water Quality Project Question Summaries and Reasearch

One of my questions that I am thinking about researching is : How much does the government enforce beach cleanliness? Now for this question I want to research how much the government has been involved with this whole issue of pollution on beaches. I mean yes I know they have signs on the beach but the real question is, what are they doing behind the scenes? That is what I am trying to figure out in my research.

In an article that I read called National Clean Water report cites ways to cleaner water they were discussing how the government has been involved in beach cleanliness around the San Diego area, in this specific instance, Coronado beach. According to this website the main goal is to strengthen the Clean Water Act. By doing so San Diego beaches pollutant levels will go down. The Clean Water Act was a law passed back in 1972 that would protect water quality in the United States. This includes "a variety of regulatory and nonregulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff."

For about 24 years San Diego government hasn't really done a good job with regulating Coronado's pollutions levels. Coronado has failed to comply with the water quality regulatory standards of the city. This is when a re-enforcement of the Clean Water Act came into play in 1996. Since 1996 the County Department of Environment Health and the City of San Diego has been examining storm drain runoff and have been working to discover the sources of the pollution. The San Diego government even used about $500,000 dollars to begin re-directing polluted runoff into the storm drain systems.

More recently a bill was passes called "The Right to Know Bill". This bill will allow for statewide water quality standards of all beaches that will protect the health of beach visitors. Another idea in the brainstorming process by the San Diego government is the protection of wetlands. According to Eric Bowlby who is Co-Chair of the San Diego Chapter, Sierra Club Coastal Committee "Wetlands help absorb and filter out pollution. This helps keep our water supplies clean and makes our oceans safer to swim in,". This is just the beginning of my research on goverment involvement with San Diego beaches.

Another question that I am thinking about is: Do different food vendors effect pollution levels at beaches? Now with this question it seemed really interesting to me. When I am at the beach I always see food vendors selling their foods. I wonder though if they are complying with the standards that the city of San Diego has set for them. I want to research how much ( if any) do food vendors expel their waste into the ocean because I am pretty sure that there are least a few vendors who don't care about properly disposing of their waste and just dumping in the ocean. Also I am thinking about what the vendors actually sell to the people. I mean not all the wrappers are going to end up in the trashcan, some are probably going to end up on the beach. This is what I hope to find out through my research.

I an article i was reading ( Doesn't have a name and I can't link it because it is microsoft word document) they were discussing how food vendors effect pollution at beaches. One these causes is urban runoff which is usually caused by poor business practices. Another way that restaurants have an effect on beach pollution is by not cleaning up food or chemical spills by just washing down the storm drain. The main issue with food vendors though is that of plastic and Styrofoam manufactured products. These products are filled with toxins such as dioxins and organochlorines that are harmful to animal if entered in the water. One las thing I want to mention is the actually use of foods. The food vendors at beaches usually tend to use foods with a lot of oil in them. If disposed improperly (which it most likely will) the oil in the food can block off oxygen in the water, therefore killing off all the fish.