Surfers and swimmers will now enter the water at their own risk since the state cut funding to the county’s decade-old water monitoring program to test bacteria levels in coastal waters. State officials say the state can’t sell bonds for the coastal water monitoring in this economic climate, and county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price said the county is not about to pick up the slack. Slater-Price said the county cannot withdraw money from its general fund — which is $3.58 billion for fiscal year 2009-10 — to pay for the water monitoring. Moreover, she said the board doesn’t want to set a precedent by paying for a program that might encourage the state to permanently drop the program in the county’s lap. “It’s an aberration of duty on the part of the state to let the program go,” Slater-Price said. “It’s so inexpensive and yet it does so [much] good. The state let it lapse because they can’t get their act together.” Slater-Price said the board of supervisors is meeting with other counties, as well as environmental groups, to discuss the dilemma. Supervisor Greg Cox said the board of supervisors is “continuing to search for a short-term, and permanent long-term funding source for beach water testing in San Diego.” Cox traveled to Sacramento in mid-March to urge the State Water Resources Control Board to provide interim funding for the program. Last September, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $984,000 from the statewide beach water-monitoring program, San Diego County lost $302,000. A month later, the state’s Water Resources Control Board offered to bond $1.97 million to monitor coastal water through 2010, but the state has not been able to sell the bonds. In 2000, voters had approved selling $1.97 million in bonds for clean water purposes “Unfortunately, the credit crunch hit at a point that we need $2 million,” said Bill Rukeyser, spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board. Under the coastal water-monitoring program, the county tested bacteria levels at 55 beach and bay sites, including 16 sites around Mission Bay. In the summer months, between April 1 and Oct. 31, beach water was tested weekly. When counts of total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococci exceeded state standards, the county’s Department of Environmental Health posted signs advising beachgoers not to swim in the ocean or bay. The department will continue to post beach closure signs following raw sewage spills. One case in point: The county issued advisory warnings for one beach area in Mission Bay, called the Visitor’s Center, seven times in 2007, four times in 2006, two times in 2003 and three times in 2002. The department measured those three strains of bacteria that come from warm-blooded animals because they’re relatively cheap, easy to measure and are indicators that other pathogens may be breeding in the water. The bacteria can cause hepatitis, gastroenteritis diseases and ear, eye and throat infections. Surfers and swimmers often underreport such sicknesses from the contaminated water, according to Jack Miller, assistant director of the county’s Department of Environmental Health. Summer is soon approaching and, with it, thousands of tourists eager to head to the beach. For now, monitoring the quality of water at beaches, in the words of Slater-Price, “will go by the wayside.”