Avalon Bay water quality has made landmark progress over the last year and has received a special update mention in the 2013-2014 Annual Beach Report Card put out by Heal the Bay on Thursday, May 22, 2014.
The five monitoring sites in Avalon received grades of: 1 A, 2 Bs and 2 Cs, on the A-F scale used in the report.
Avalon Bay water quality has made landmark progress over the last year and has received a special update mention in the 2013-2014 Annual Beach Report Card put out by Heal the Bay on Thursday, May 22, 2014.
The five monitoring sites in Avalon received grades of: 1 A, 2 Bs and 2 Cs, on the A-F scale used in the report.
Since 2006 Avalon has not received higher than a C grade, with approximately 86% of the time receiving an F grade. The positive change is attributed to many efforts over the years, which helped advance the understanding of the water quality factors and helped better target recent improvement investments. These investments addressed specific areas of concern and cover a wide range of capital improvements, policy and procedural updates, stricter municipal codes and enforcement, collaboration with the residential and business community to increase awareness and involvement, and coordination with outside agencies.
This dramatic improvement not only removes beaches in Avalon from Heal the Bay’s Beach Bummer list but shows that the variety of investments have Avalon Bay headed in the right direction.
While this is fantastic news for this year, there is still significant work to be done to continue this progress and improve water quality in Avalon Bay.
Jordan C. Monroe is a management aide for the city of Avalon.
