Getting the scoop on the poop

Dog Beach, the kind of funky cult-favorite park you’d find only in funky cult-favorite Ocean Beach, is pretty much what it says it is. Man’s best friend rules the roost 24 hours every day at the sandy expanse where the western end of Voltaire Street meets the South Mission Bay Channel jetty — hapless tennis balls, tooth-marked Frisbees and badly disfigured chew toys dot the landscape, and you’ll probably find a fair share of leashes around, too, as Dog Beach is one of San Diego’s 15 parks in which dogs can run untethered (there’s a paved area along the water for those who prefer a stroll on a leash). On the busiest weekends, up to 100 animals bask on the waters where Rocky the Surfing Dog stole more than his share of hearts in movies like “Endless Summer II.” But 100 weekend dogs more than 40 years of Saturdays and Sundays equals over a half-million visits, and that doesn’t count the rest of the week. Theoretically, age 40 (the number of years Dog Beach celebrates in 2012) is the point at which life begins — but upon closer inspection, one of San Diego’s most delightful venues is showing patches of wrinkled skin. Harmful beach algae, or “red tides,” can collect alongshore in summer, compounding four decades’ wear and tear. The beach also sits between two planning districts, whose jurisdictions may overlap. And although Heal the Bay usually rates Dog Beach water quality at an A or A-plus in dry weather, the high marks reportedly are due in large part to brisk tidal flow that tends to flush the area at strategic parts of the day. Dog Beach, then, isn’t without its hazards. And, according to the city’s Storm Water Division (the agency charged with monitoring dog waste pollutants), one of those drawbacks originates from the enemy within as fecal traces threaten to enter the city’s storm-drain system untreated and travel into the beaches, bays and lagoons. “The big issue at Dog Beach is dog excrement,” said Storm Water Division spokesman Bill Harris. “The beach is at the mouth of the San Diego River, and so it does catch some of the pollutants that wash down as runoff on the first flush after a rain. But that’s not what’s troubling us. Dog Beach is highly contaminated due to bacteria in dog excrement, way more polluted [than most San Diego beaches.]” It’s also not alone in its dilemma, according to Harris. “The mouth of Tecolote Creek,” he said, “is a big issue. And there are bacteria problems at [Pacific Beach] Point, where we’ve got kelp degradation and flies that come in. Dog Beach is not unusual, and I shouldn’t make it sound like that at all. But it is very concerning to us, absolutely.” In 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency called dog poop a “nonpoint source of pollution,” which puts it in the same toxicity category as petroleum. The agency also said that a single gram of dog waste can contain up to 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, known to cause cramps, intestinal illness and kidney disease in humans. The agency added that two days’ droppings from about 100 animals (remember, that’s the number of Dog Beach visitors over the nicest weekend days) could contribute enough pollution to cause closures of beaches, bays and watersheds for 20 miles around. Hookworms, ringworms, tapeworms, Salmonella: Dog waste is infested with these and other bugs, leaving adults and especially children susceptible to fever, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhea. As reported in the journal Gut Pathogens last July, San Diego State University’s Center for Microbial Sciences deemed Dog Beach “prone to closures due to high levels of fecal indicator bacteria.” The school’s own study found that Enterococcus — the bacterium that plays a major role in diseases like diverticulitis and meningitis — was detected in five of 20 stool samples gathered at the water’s edge. “A paramount concern,” the study concluded, “is pollution by human and animal waste because it carries disease-causing bacteria and viruses. With the close interaction of humans and animals at locations like Dog Beach, a potential reservoir for novel infectious disease pathogens may exist.” So why isn’t everybody at Dog Beach getting sick, especially as the pollutants are exposed by the natural activity of the river tides and ocean? For one thing, geography’s involved. Dog Beach is nearly 40 acres deep, far and away the city’s largest off-leash area except for Mission Bay Park’s Fiesta Island. The greater the area of potential pollutants, the better the chances they won’t find their way into the city’s storm-drain system. Another element involves responsible pet ownership. “I’ve been from coast to coast,” said Oceanside resident and acclaimed dog behaviorist Arden Moore during a recent interview, “and [San Diego] is pet heaven” — which is to say that most dog owners are inclined to pick up after their pets per San Diego municipal code. Harris agrees. “We’ve been doing a public-education campaign for about 11 years,” Harris said, “and we’ve had pretty considerable success getting people to change the way they do things, picking up after their dogs, washing things into the rivers and other watershed that we’ve got. And we’re seeing diminishing point-source discharge in other areas. “And Ocean Beach is truly miles ahead in responding to stormwater pollution,” he said. “The Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, the business services organization, does a really fine job in picking and choosing some of the things they do to deal with polluted runoff. And we see a lot of people in Ocean Beach disconnecting their downspouts, turning that water onto their property to make sure it doesn’t wash pollutants downstream. The community understands what they’re up against, and they really take a great deal of pride on making those changes.” But Ocean Beach has a long way to go before it follows the lead in Cambridge, Mass., where dog feces are used to power lampposts in a public park. Dog Beach, of course, would be an ideal setting for such a place. For now, the pollution dilemma colors its brave face with a curious clench of the jaw. For more information on the city’s Storm Water Division and its environmental efforts, visit www.sandiego.gov/stormwater or thinkblue.org.