Two Santa Barbara Beaches Getting Daily Water Quality Ratings with Smart Phone App

Two local beaches have been chosen to get daily ratings on a relaunched Heal the Bay app called Beach Report Card.

The app has weekly letter grades for most beaches, but models will allow water quality experts to give beaches daily good or bad ratings.

Heal the Bay will give daily ratings to East Beach and Arroyo Burro known as Hendry’s Beach.

Heal the Bay water quality modeler Ryan Searcy said they chose the beaches because of the cooperation with Santa Barbara County public health officers.

They will also rate Santa Monica Pier , Belmont Pier and Doheny beaches daily.

Heal the Bay has a grant to pay for the app and it is working in partnership with Stanford and UCLA professors.

They hope to expand the daily rating to 25 beaches and add social interaction.

The local beaches have good ratings today and have been good all summer with the exception of one day each.

Spikes in bacteria usually happen after run-off from storms, but the drought has lessened the unhealthy days.

A flock of birds, boats coming through, dogs and swimmers can lead to bad rating days.

Beachgoers can help keep beaches clean by joining in the beach clean up in September.

For more information about the clean up day and the app visit healthebay.org.