How dirty is the water at Breakwater when it rains?

[reefvagabond]

Ok, I've read that it's not the best idea to shore dive after it rains because of sewage flowing into the ocean. That's a bummer because I was looking forward to diving this weekend. So just how gross and poopy (Fecal coliform) does Breakwater get when it rains? How unsafe to dive?

I found this link but it won't be updated for another month and samples were taken when the wether was nicer.
MTYHD.org - San Carlos Beach

 

[fisheater]

I got certified on a stormy weekend there. Had to walk past the Coast Guard filling sandbags to get into the water.

Vis was awesome. Never heard of health warnings. Only disease I caught was an addiction to diving.

 

[Peter_C]

We were diving at McCabee one day and a guy was testing the water from the county or city. When we asked how the water condition was, his comment went something like this, "If you knew what was in there, you wouldn't be going diving". It wasn't a stormy day either.

Pollution is one of the things we have brought against ourselves. When I used to wakeboard a lot on the Sacramento Delta we never rode after a heavy rain since the water was disgustingly dirty. At least the ocean gets diluted a lot more than a river. We occasionally get health warnings posted at Still Water Cove in Sonoma County. If you have never been there, it is fairly remote. Your cell phone quit working 35 minutes before arrival.

 

[g1138]

Rain tends to increase runoff from land, so anything on the streets, near the beach, in the gutters, it all goes to the ocean.
My oceanography professor said that fecal matter does increase by quite a bit near shore after it rains. But there's already a lot of marine fecal matter in the water to begin with.

You most likely won't get sick, but your throat/sinuses my feel a little tingly afterwords depending on how much water you "drank".
For viz, it just depends. A crummy day of diving if better than no diving IMO.

 

[TracysaCADiver]

--snip---

Pollution is one of the things we have brought against ourselves. When I used to wakeboard a lot on the Sacramento Delta we never rode after a heavy rain since the water was disgustingly dirty. At least the ocean gets diluted a lot more than a river. We occasionally get health warnings posted at Still Water Cove in Sonoma County. If you have never been there, it is fairly remote. Your cell phone quit working 35 minutes before arrival.

I hear ya there Pete. I live on the river (in the North Delta area in Walnut Grove) and just about every time it rains here comes the brown water, and it usually lasts for a couple of days or so afterwords. I would imagine it would be the same with a little dilution in the ocean.

 

[Peter_C]

I stored my Nautique at B&W Resort for many many years, so I know the Walnut Grove area well by water. We could always count on the water being dead flat just South of the bridge on the North Mokelumne. That is where I broke my leg last time that ended my wakeboarding fun forever. Pretty much every day after riding I would get what I called the "Delta nose", which was a plugged up nose. Didn't get it as much riding in lakes...hmmmm I wonder if the Delta water had anything to do with it?? :ermm:

Either we all start paying attention to what goes down the drain, or our lifestyle will go down the drain, so to speak. At least the HUGE swells this weekend will move the water around.

 

[TracysaCADiver]

Probably did have something to do with it. You never know what the "Delta Secret" might cause.

 

[blewgrass]

The Sacramento River and nearshore ocean areas will get more slime and goo from the city streets flowing into the sea, but the Sacramento river and all rivers from the mountains in California are bringing lots of silt, debris, and nitrogen wastes additionally. Most of the "muddy" color is due to silt during the rainy season, as is with any river. I've worked at a Sonoma County beach for the last 7 years and have followed water quality as well as looked at some data regarding water quality over the last couple of decades. In Sonoma County, the beaches have tested with higher levels of bacteria in recent years, but places like Campbell Cove in Bodega Bay, are almost always testing with lousy water quality. Be especially careful with open sores, cuts and wounds being exposed to dirty beach water and sand. Your chances of testing positive for MRSA on your next hospital visit increase dramatically. Many of us are colonizing this stuff on our skin as it is...but a healthy immune system keeps it in check.

Another problem with water quality up North is the dramatic increase in runoff from Northern California vitniculture, and dairy farm runoff. Some researchers are suspecting the jellyfish blooms are a result from this nitrogen that in turn causes the algae blooms that were responsible for the severe red tides that killed off many of the nearshore critters this year including abalone.

Having been told all of this, I'm still a huge fan of diving these waters and as long as I'm healthy, not swallowing large amounts of seawater, and portals of entry in my body are protected, I feel safe diving. If you are severely immunocompromised, dive with caution.

I dove Lover's on a rainy day and it was Awesome! Depending on how hard the rain is, there may be murky water close to where the runoff is coming in, but otherwise other swell, wave and current data will probably affect visibility much more, and the deeper, less sandy areas will not be affected at all.