Engineers assess Cowell Beach bacterial problem

3 bacteria levels 3 bacteria levels are too high for this popular beach spot… that’s according to the santa cruz public works department… and with summer right around the corner, we’re taking a look at the city says plan to fix the problem. 3 heath advisory warnings are a consistent issue for cowell’s beach…and the santa cruz public works department says it’s prepping to plug the problem.good evening, thanks for joing us, i’m marissa schwartz. central coast news reporter cassandra arsenault finds out why engineers think a neighboring lagoon is to blame. 3 3 *trt:outcue::*13-1635-42 1:20-1:34serving a volleyball, soaking up the sun, getting exercise in, or enjoying the ocean scenery, these everyday beach go-ers say the beach is the lifeblood of santa cruz. 6:30:02 i play a lot of beach volleyball//i go body surfing a lot. i like the water i usually go out ther after every tournament to chill out. gage worsley, usually swims after he plays volleyball on the beach, i asked him if the periodic bacteria adviseries gets in the way of his swims. 6:30:26 i never knew there was high bacteria in santa cruz//i would suspect in other beaches but not here.but there is, and the source of the contamination is less than a mile away..6:13:17 once we started looking at all the possibilities of the contamination out at cowells beach it was obvious we wanted to isolate neary lagoon. there’s no circulation of water during the summer in neary lagoon, so the bacteria festers, and clogs up the pipeline emptying into the beach.6:11:52 the water has no place to go, so it sits there in the pipeline and it slowly seeps into the sand at cowells beach.and it’s affecting cowell’s beach with health advisery alerts once every three weeks in the last year according to wolfman, and has landed cowell’s beach on the heal the bay’s “beach bummers” list five years in a row with a failing grade. but santa cruz is about to change that. they just received 3 a 450 thousand dollar grant for a 600,000 dollar project to seal off contamination. 6:23″43 right now they can’t control the amount of water coming through the pipes and dumping into the beach, but with these gates they will be able to close them during the summer, so no water is seeping in, however during the winter they will have to let some of this water go into the beach. steve says they are hoping it will improve the water quality. 6:15:10 we can feel more safe about what is going on 3 there.so this beach hot spot can live on.cassandra arsenault your central coast news.