Research Paper on San Diego Mission Bay Pollution

The water pollution issue at San Diego Mission Bay is reported to have disrupted the residents normal way of life in a number of ways. The pollution incident, according to the San Diego county department of Environmental Health comes in place when the coastal waters are contaminated by the running water from the urban areas. Thesewater carry with them contaminated material that in turn contaminates the coastal waters. It is therefore unsafe for residents to use the coastal waters for recreational purposes after this pollution frenzy. The advisory warns people against any use of the coastal waters for a period of 72 hours after it is contaminated by the urban runoff (Daily Aztec Magazine). Coastal waters in the San Diego Mission Bay have been suffering contamination by urban runoff time and again. It is common for most coastal water to suffer this kind of contamination. The difference in the degree of contamination is however controlled by factors like the distance of the coastal inlet form the bay. When the coastal waters are contaminated by the urban runoff, the bacteria levels raise tremendous, reaching dangerous levels and making it harmful for any human activities to be allowed within those waters (Devane, Megan, 17).

MBAC is a center that offers lots of recreational services to the residents of San Diego. These recreational services include sailing, waterskiing, stand up paddle, wakeboarding, kayaking, windsurfing, and rowing. Amongst the members of the community who majorly use these services are college students who seek credit for SDSUs School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences. The other majority is general public and tourists visiting the bay. The pollution by the urban runoff on the coastal waters, therefore, bring a big disruption of life and normal day to day activities to the people of this locality and not only the students using the bay for education and recreational purposes. The 72-hour standoff that given during the last pollution incident at San Diego Bay goes a notch further to affect it indirectly affected the lives of other residents of San Diego who depend on the Bays operation for income earning purposes (Goodwin, Kelly, 9).Competing interests

The competing Interests in the San Diego mission bay pollution controversy are the political groups and the MBAC center. The political side is represented by the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health. The environmental committee holds that every time there is 20 inches of rain or more, the warning to stay out the coastal waters for at least 72 hours is given. The student representatives and other community interest groups have lamented about the issuance of the advisory saying that the water samples have been assessed after the rains and it has been found that the bacteria levels do not reach any harmful concentrations. These contradicting findings from both sides have seen a struggle whereby a fraction of the society thinks that is for the communitys safety for the county environmental departments to issue the advisory, while others are of the idea that it is nothing but a derailment of the smooth flow of social and educational activities.

According to MBAC, the center conducts its own tests to find out whether the bacteria levels are at any harmful points after every rain. The center puts it across that if they find the water to be unsafe for classes, they advise their students to stay out of the water. MBAC runs 10 different tests at any one period to ascertain for sure that the waters are safe for holding classes. They, however, feel that the environmental departments directive of staying out the water for at least 72 hours after every relatively big rain is affecting MBACS activities negatively. The advisory has painted a negative reputation on San Diego and Mission Bay Aquatic Centre.

The power struggles existing between the San Diego political faction and MBAC is observed to center around the acknowledgment of San Diego as being a clean city (Devane, Megan, 27). The political side is gearing towards reducing or rather eliminating any water-pollution-related casualty. The authorities are doing this by using the advisory which urges citizens to stay out of the coastal waters for at least 72 hours after the rains. MBAC is concerned with both the health of the people using their facility as well as the advancement of recreational and educational goals. To be able to protect these two interests, MBAC takes precaution to ensure that the water is safe from bacteria (Goodwin, Kelly, 12). The struggle emanates from the point whereby the Sa Diego County Environmental Department advises on something that is seen by Mission Bay as barring the use of the bay for almost the entire rainy seasons. The public has been found to be in question about the advisory given by the Environmental Health Department. The public is therefore with MBAC in questioning the safety or harmfulness of the water after every rain, and whether it wise to go for that long without using the coastal facilities after every rain (Benjamin-Chung, Jade, 19). The social systems of San Diego are affected by this controversy. Being a coastal urban setting, most social activities are done on beaches and coastal facilities, Mission Bay is one of these facilities.

Despite there being a struggle between Mission Bay Aquatic Centre and the San Diego authorities, the two sides agree on the fact that bacteria from the urban run-off is harmful to the public using the coastal facility. Both parties have taken measures to eliminate any casualty arising from these issues, and are united in trying to make San Diego cleaner than it is. They are also in concurrence when they work towards bettering the outsiders perception of San Diego, and more specifically San Diego Mission Bay.

The factions within the pollution controversy

The two major factions in the San Diego mission bay water pollution controversy are the San Diego authorities, being led by the Department of environmental health, and the community. The community is led by Mission Bay Aquatic Center, which apart from being a recreational center, is an education facility being used by university students. The major concerns of the authorities are keeping the bay and the coastal waters completely out of use for at least 72 hours. This is an advisory that Mission Bay feels that it puts its reputation on the negative side. The community also feels that the advisory threatens their use of the bay after every rain because they dont have what it takes to measure the rainfall amount or the bacteria levels within the water (Goodwin, Kelly, 29). MBAC being one of the two faction leaders takes all the trouble to measure the bacteria levels within the water after every rain so as to give assurance to Mission Bay users that the waters are safe for use. Mission Bay also holds that not all the recreational activities conducted expose participants to the bacteria. MBAC argues that more testing should be conducted before terming the San Diego Bay coastal waters as being polluted, and leads the faction that argues on the treatment of the Bay as being as safe as the other coastal waters.

Funding of factions on the controversy

The two factions hold almost similar concerns of protecting the safety and well-being of coastal facility users. However, one faction feels that the other is acting too general on their concerns. Mission Bay Argues against the advisory which is seen to not only taint the reputation of San Diego but specifically that of Mission Bay Aquatic Centre (Ferguson, Donna, 23). Mission Bay is society funded institution while the San Diego County Environmental Health Department is funded by the government bodies. I would agree and support the Mission Bay Aquatic Center on their quest to allow the society to use the coastal waters for recreational and educational activities without restriction. This is because of their commitment to ensuring that water is safe and free from harmful bacteria before allowing any use of it. The advisory on avoiding the coastal waters on the grounds that they are polluted affects the psychological condition of the society towards San Diego's hygiene and limits the social activities taking place on the bay. The only thing that should be done to find out the safety of the water is testing for bacteria levels and not the 72-hour advisory which scares the public from the otherwise safe coastal waters of Mission Bay Aquatic Center.

Works Cited

Benjamin-Chung, Jade, et al. "Coliphages and Gastrointestinal Illness in Recreational Waters: Pooled Analysis of Six Coastal Beach Cohorts." Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) 28.5 (2017): 644.

Devane, P. Megan L. "Better water quality indicators for understanding microbial health risks." (2016).

Ferguson, Donna M., et al. "Virulence genes among Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium isolated from coastal beaches and human and nonhuman sources in Southern California and Puerto Rico." Journal of pathogens 2016 (2016).

Goodwin, Kelly D., et al. "Consideration of Natural Sources in a Bacteria TMDL Lines of Evidence, Including Beach Microbial Source Tracking." Environmental Science & Technology 51.14 (2017): 7775-7784.

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