The Big Basin Pool. The Siesta Swimming Hole in Brookdale. The Ben Lomond Pool. The Lompico Pool. Decades of San Lorenzo River memories. All gone.
The U.S. Endangered Species Act may have removed the dams the blocked steelhead spawning runs, ending these manmade swimming holes, but the river and the creeks that feed it are more vibrant – and cleaner – than ever, according to environmental scientists and county officials.
The removal of the man-made structures resulted in a river is more free-running, which gives it more opportunities to clean itself of bacteria and sediment that could be harmful to bathers.
There still are plenty of natural swimming holes, and a couple of dams, that offer local bathers plenty of opportunity for old-fashioned summer fun.
Rope swings into cool clear water, tadpole searches and skipping stones are features of the Santa Cruz Mountains’ natural water parks.
“Results from six months of testing during last year’s recreational season (May-October) showed that bacteria associated with human sewage was rarely if ever present,’ reported the Coastal Watershed Council. “Additional testing is warranted to verify these results under varying conditions, but the findings represent a challenge to the notion held by many that the river and watershed supplying two-thirds of Santa Cruz’s drinking water are badly polluted.”
Junction Park. Highland Park. The Fern River Resort. The Garden of Eden. All clean – as long as bathers pick up their trash. All safe – as long as homes along the watershed continue to main their septic systems and limit use of dangerous herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.”
“I would swim in it, I do swim in it,” said Greg Pepping, an environmental chemist who is executive director of the Coastal Watershed Council. His only caution? Don’t go near the water within a few days after a rainfall, because of runoff carrying ground pollutants into the streams. And, just to be safe, don’t drink the water.
“Most of us agree that during dry weather the river is pretty clean.”
The council, in partnership with the City of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, the Surfrider Foundation, and the Central Coast Regional Water Board, is in midst of six-month study through October, that they hope will yield more detailed data about the kinds of pollutants and bacteria in the water. It is important to Santa Cruz for more than recreational reasons: The city gets two-thirds of its drinking water from the river, which flows 29 miles from headwaters at more than 3,000 feet above sea level to the Monterey Bay.
Epidemiologists recognize bacteria from humans as posing high threats to public health, but traditional tests required of municipalities can’t tell scientists the origin of bacteria found in rivers and creeks. The local working group tested for specific sewage-associated chemical and microbiological pollutants to learn more useful information, with the intention of identifying and addressing human sources of bacteria in the watershed.
These will include laboratory tests for caffeine, human DNA, and cholesterol, Pepping said. It is important for them to repeat the tests this summer, in its first “normal, non-drought” year in several years.
“The goal is to reduce human bacteria inputs to the lowest levels possible,” he said.
“We want people to respectfully reconnect with their river.”
The big polluters of the past along the San Lorenzo River were the logging camps and the pole road and flumes used to carry the logs to the railroads. In addition to sediment and waste, landslides and massive erosion were common. In the last decades of the 20th century, fish populations nearly disappeared.
A report issued last summer by the San Lorenzo River Alliance reported little to no human bacteria present in the San Lorenzo River.
The county still monitors “fecal indicator bacteria” and the results this summer are better than ever. The Coastal Watershed Council (CWC) and San Lorenzo River Alliance released a technical memo last month indicating little to no human contribution to bacteria levels in the lower San Lorenzo River.
Here are the latest measurements of E-coli (human fecal bacteria) at points along the river, taken in the first week of July.
Levels of more than 400 “Colony Forming Units” per 100 ml (less than half a cup) are unsafe, exceeding state and county standards, when even contact with the water can make you sick.
Levels between 200 and 400 CFUs exceed county standards, but are acceptable, with caution.
Levels below 200 CFUs are safe for swimming.
Kings Creek at Highway 9 – 504
SL River above Love Creek – 352
San Lorenzo River at Two Bar Creek – 175
Newell Creek at River – 158
SL River at Big Trees Lumber – 125
SL River at Highlands Park – 118
SL River just below Boulder Creek – 94
SL River at River St – 85
Boulder Creek at SL River – 61
Bear Creek at SL River – 21
