[quote=4plexowner]
I hadn’t heard about increased health risks from living around the bay – I tell my kids and visitors to NEVER swim in Mission Bay – I have heard / read (?) that the water does not circulate well through the Bay so the water is relatively stagnant – combine a lack of circulation with the toxic remains of a landfill and you have the potential for a big, nasty, toxic body of water
when I first moved to San Diego 18 years ago I read a story in the Reader about unexplainable and incurable skin rashes and skin conditions that swimmers and surfers were developing – the article attributed the problem to our off-shore dumping of wastewater – made the point that every toilet in every hospital and medical facility in San Diego flushes into the ocean about 2 miles off-shore after the minimal amount of treatment required by law
anybody up for surfing this morning?
~
edit: another water quality issue is the sewage coming up from Tijuana – the beaches along Coronado are closed several (numerous?) times each year because of unhealthy conditions[/quote]
This post is so misinformed I’m not sure where to begin. 4plexowner, if, as you say, the bay has poor circulation of new ocean water then how the hell does the offshore discharge have any relevance? And how does water from Coronado Island, which is DOWNCURRENT on the other side of Point Loma even figure into the calculus (or lack thereof)?
The fact is that if has been two or three days since the last rain (aka, ALL SUMMER), Mission Bay provides some of the cleanest water for swimming in San Diego. The City’s $130MM storm water diversion system keeps surface runoff out of the bay and there is tremendous tidal flushing. The average depth of the bay is about 15 feet, and the tide moves up and down 3 to 6 feet meaning that about a third of the water is replaced in each tide cycle, or TWICE per day.
