Heal The Bay hails quality at 15 beaches

Fifteen beach areas across San Diego County offered ideal conditions for swimmers, while Baja California’s Playa Blanca and the Tijuana Slough were ranked as two of the most polluted beaches in the region, according to Heal the Bay’s annual report Wednesday.

The nonprofit assigned letter grades to 500 beaches across the state. Grades were based on the levels of fecalindicator bacterial pollution in the ocean, as measured by county health agencies.

Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card included 15 beaches in San Diego County on its “Honor Roll List” for perfect water quality grades. The local beaches that made the Honor Roll were in Del Mar, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Point Loma, Sunset Cliffs, Mission Beach and La Jolla.

San Diego County had the second-most beaches make the Honor Roll, trailing only Orange County.

Playa Blanca in Baja California, as well as the Tijuana Slough north of the Tijuana River Mouth, were listed on the organization’s Beach Bummer List, which ranks the most polluted beaches based on levels of harmful bacteria in the ocean.

Both areas are monitored by San Diego County and affected by sewage-contaminated runoff from Tijuana.

The full report card can be viewed at https://healthebay.org/beachreportcard2022/.

Urban Corps gets $1.5M in grants from Cal Fire

Conservation organization Urban Corps of San Diego County has been awarded two grants from Cal Fire totaling $1.5 million to fund a program to plant more than 1,500 trees across the county, it was announced today.

The funds from Cal Fire’s Urban and Community Forestry Program will be used for Tree Corps, a workforce development program aimed at training and placing members of Urban Corps of San Diego County in urban forestry careers.

Urban Corps says the funds will also support the planting of 1,538 trees in Vista, Imperial Beach, Escondido, San Marcos, Lemon Grove, Lakeside and Cesar Chavez Park.