After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut funding for a statewide beach water monitoring program with a line item veto in September, the California Water Resources Control board has been able to find the money to keep the program afloat. The state’s water resources board voted unanimously to pour more than $900,000 of unused bond money slated for Proposition 13 water quality projects to fund the program through 2009. The vote gives the board’s director the power to extend funding for another year if needed totaling about $1.9 million for the program, according to County Supervisor Greg Cox. Cox said the funding is a “stop-gap” measure and the state and local governments would have to find ways to fund the program into the future. Cox went to the Nov. 4 California Water Resources Board meeting where he said several people spoke on behalf of San Diego County. “It’s an extremely important program,” Cox said. “Not just for the 3.1 million residents we have in this county but the 30 million that come to San Diego County [every] year.” The money would pay for the program that monitors about 55 sites from April through October. Municipal agencies checking for water bacteria levels around the city remained unaffected by the state cuts in September. Local environmental groups rely on the county’s water data and check it for indicators of the health of the overall beaches and waterways. Without it, coastal communities could have missed warning signs about potentially unhealthy beach water, Bruce Reznik San Diego Coastkeeper executive director said. Though Coastkeeper didn’t miss important information during the weeks without monitoring, Reznik echoes concerns over finding a long-term funding source for the program. Coastkeeper primarily checks inland waterways and relies on county and city data to lead volunteers to possible contamination sources. “[The program] has been a really important tool to raise awareness of the issue. Until then we had a head-in-the-sand approach. Everyone knew we had water problems but we didn’t have the data to back it up or to raise public awareness,” Reznik said. The program started about a decade ago through Assembly Bill 411 and rode a wave of concern about public health into law. The program was the result of grass roots efforts began in San Diego, county health officials said.