Cowell Beach ranked fifth most bacterially polluted in state

At first glance, Cowell Beach looks like the perfect place to spend a hot summer day. ” There’s great surf and great boogie boarding, ” said Santa Cruz resident, Tyler Roller.

Wednesday, the nonprofit, Heal the Bay, announced that Cowell Beach ranks fifth on their “Summer Bummer ” list. The list ranks ten of the most bacterially polluted beaches in the state of California every year.

This year’s roundup includes spots like San Clemente Pier, Long Beach City Beach, and Linda Mar Beach. ” I think this report just confirms what we already knew. We’ve eliminated some of the sources of bacteria, and we still have a little more to go, ” said Save the Waves executive director, Nik Strong-Cvetich .

Strong-Cvetich has been working for the last five years to figure out why the bacteria levels at Cowell Beach are so high. With the help of the City of Santa Cruz, he said they have been able to decrease the problem significantly. ” We are narrowing the types of sources and are able to understand the dynamics of what is happening here at this beach. We have a wharf that is home to a lot of pigeons. Believe it or not, that is one of the sources that we have narrowed down, ” said City of Santa City council member, Donna Meyers.

Meyers said keeping the wharf clean of rotting trash helps keep the pigeons away. Pigeons are known for leaving their dropping in the ocean, which the city said leads to more pollution. ” We’re always looking at the relationship between the our urban area, our wharf, the beach, and the ocean, to see what things we can look at cleaning up, ” said Meyers.

The city said if bacteria poses an immediate threat to swimmers, warning signs will be posted. Until then, Meyers said they will keep working to make Cowell Beach a great place to be. ” We think in the next couple years we’ll have more solutions in place and hopefully be off the list, ” said Meyers.