Water-quality watchdog groups Heal the Bay and San Diego Coastkeeper handed down a mixed report card for local beaches last month. Mission, Pacific, and Ocean beaches received good overall grades during dry weather months, but each received poor grades during wet weather months when inland runoff mucks up the waterways. Vacation Isle of Mission Bay made the “beach bummer” list for some of the poorest water-quality test results in dry months — a time when runoff typically is not an issue. The nonprofit environmental groups urge more waterways testing for bacteria — a step that would also require more funding. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008 cut about $1 million for water-quality monitoring. “It’s challenging,” said Kirsten James, water quality director for Heal the Bay. San Diego and other counties “[have] seen a decrease in funding for water-quality testing in recent years, so we’re looking for state and local [governments] to give us a sustainable funding source to continue water-quality testing.” The statewide beach-monitoring program remains “essentially unfunded” starting in 2011, according to the environmental groups’ report. Clay Clifton, San Diego Coastkeeper’s watershed monitoring program manager and former county environmental health specialist, said that while report cards like these give beachgoers safety information regarding yearly water quality, he recommends checking the county’s website and Heal the Bay’s weekly reports for safety warnings. While Coastkeeper supports the report card analysis, testing may not accurately reflect bacteria levels, Clifton said. If the county tests on the third day of a three-day general advisory after rain or runoff, then it does not record information about bacteria levels on day one or day two, which may be different, Clifton said. More data helps inform residents about health risks, he said. The four southernmost beaches of San Diego were closed for a total of 115 days between April 2009 and March 2010, mainly because of raw sewage from the Tijuana River, according to Heal the Bay’s report. Another sewage spill closed Dog Beach in Point Loma for two days when about 15,000 gallons of sewage found its way into the waterway. “We think it’s important when you have millions of people — locals and tourists generating millions [of dollars] — that makes our beaches important enough to have a local funding source [for bacteria testing] and we should not have a state funding source that is uncertain and unreliable,” Clifton said. San Diego Coastkeeper continues to urge the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for more funding, he said. The complete report card on beach water quality can be found by visiting www.healthebay.org.