Project
Beach Water Quality Monitoring Program
Location: California
Why It Matters
California counts over 150 million day visits to beaches by tourists and residents who spend over $10 billion each year. Having clean, non-polluted water at these beaches protects beachgoers from illness, and keeps coastal communities and their economies thriving.
Seventeen different California counties annually sample 656 monitoring stations at 291 beaches, with 515 miles of beaches monitored and 28,000 samples collected annually, supported by millions spent annually through AB411 and other grant programs. But these county agencies and their teams need further technical support and funding to improve their monitoring and reporting work and to strengthen the overall health of their beaches.
What We’re Doing
Coastal Quest is helping the California State Water Resources Control Board and agencies across the state to modernize and strengthen the beach water quality monitoring program. Our technical assistance includes surveying the counties that monitor and report beach water quality, and developing recommendations for improvement.
This allows state and local beach water quality agencies to do their job more effectively and state funding to be spent more efficiently, ultimately keeping our beaches safer for people and animals alike.
Project Partners
Coastal Quest helped us hear directly from local monitoring agencies about what is working, where programs are feeling stretched, and what support would make the biggest difference. One clear takeaway was that agencies are doing a lot with limited resources but many need help improving public notification systems and reporting tools so beach water quality information can reach communities more quickly and clearly. These findings allow us to focus future support on the practical upgrades agencies need most.