Getting the scoop on the poop<\/b><\/br> <\/br>Dog Beach, the kind of funky cult-favorite park you\u2019d find only in funky cult-favorite Ocean Beach, is pretty much what it says it is. Man\u2019s 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 \u2014 hapless tennis balls, tooth-marked Frisbees and badly disfigured chew toys dot the landscape, and you\u2019ll probably find a fair share of leashes around, too, as Dog Beach is one of San Diego\u2019s 15 parks in which dogs can run untethered (there\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2014 but upon closer inspection, one of San Diego\u2019s most delightful venues is showing patches of wrinkled skin. Harmful beach algae, or “red tides,” can collect alongshore in summer, compounding four decades\u2019 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\u2019t without its hazards. And, according to the city\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s not what\u2019s troubling us. Dog Beach is highly contaminated due to bacteria in dog excrement, way more polluted [than most San Diego beaches.]” It\u2019s 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\u2019ve got kelp degradation and flies that come in. Dog Beach is not unusual, and I shouldn\u2019t 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\u2019 droppings from about 100 animals (remember, that\u2019s 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\u2019s Center for Microbial Sciences deemed Dog Beach “prone to closures due to high levels of fecal indicator bacteria.” The school\u2019s own study found that Enterococcus \u2014 the bacterium that plays a major role in diseases like diverticulitis and meningitis \u2014 was detected in five of 20 stool samples gathered at the water\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019s involved. Dog Beach is nearly 40 acres deep, far and away the city\u2019s largest off-leash area except for Mission Bay Park\u2019s Fiesta Island. The greater the area of potential pollutants, the better the chances they won\u2019t find their way into the city\u2019s storm-drain system. Another element involves responsible pet ownership. “I\u2019ve been from coast to coast,” said Oceanside resident and acclaimed dog behaviorist Arden Moore during a recent interview, “and [San Diego] is pet heaven” \u2014 which is to say that most dog owners are inclined to pick up after their pets per San Diego municipal code. Harris agrees. “We\u2019ve been doing a public-education campaign for about 11 years,” Harris said, “and we\u2019ve 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\u2019ve got. And we\u2019re 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\u2019t wash pollutants downstream. The community understands what they\u2019re 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\u2019s Storm Water Division and its environmental efforts, visit www.sandiego.gov\/stormwater or thinkblue.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Getting the scoop on the poop Dog Beach, the kind of funky cult-favorite park you\u2019d find only in funky cult-favorite Ocean Beach, is pretty much what it says it is. Man\u2019s best friend rules the roost 24 hours every day at the sandy expanse where the western end of Voltaire Street meets the South Mission […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":279554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"City: canine pollutants marring Dog Beach\u2019s illustrious exterior","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}