San Pedro Creek - Pollution

Pollution

In 1999, a group Pacifica residents formed the nonprofit San Pedro Creek Watershed Coalition, with the goal of protecting and enhancing the health of the San Pedro Creek and watershed. Their activities include monitoring, restoration, adaptive management, and education programs. The monitoring program has joined with a monitoring program of the Environmental Protection Agency, started in 1998, to track and identify sources of pollution in the creek. A year 2000 comprehensive study, in cooperation with the San Francisco State University Masters program reviewed the in-stream chemical, physical and biological qualities of the creek. A key finding of the study was that fecal bacteria levels in the North Fork and Main Stem of San Pedro Creek significantly exceeded the acceptable levels of exposure for recreation per the State of California and the EPA. The recreation use level is pertinent due to beach closures for recreational uses, including surfing, near the creek's mouth on the Pacific Ocean.

The highest pollution levels were found during the wet season and were located at downstream sites during the highest during runoff events. The dominated pollution was E. coli traced to avian sources, but also significant association with dogs, human, horse, raccoon and deer. During the dry season the ratio of sources still was primarily avian, but raccoons and dogs become more dominant.