With summer underway and people looking for a place to cool off, we at the Coastal Watershed Council often hear the question, “How clean is the San Lorenzo River?” Our favorite tool for answering this question is the County of Santa Cruz’s Water Quality Mapper. You can use this interactive resource to look up the water quality of your favorite beach, river, or lagoon. With many locations updated weekly and an easy-to-use red, yellow, green indicator system, it’s a quick and simple way to learn about water quality in Santa Cruz County.
Using the menus in the left sidebar, “Select Station Type” to filter the map by type of water body (choose “Stream or Lagoon” to see the San Lorenzo River), and “Select Date Range” to see the most recent samples from the last 14, 30, or 365 days. Clicking the “List” tab below the map brings up all of the monitoring stations in a list format, while the “Info” tab explains the color coding of the symbols.
Green = Acceptable: Acceptable for water contact. All of the Water Quality Standards for bacteria were met in the most recent sample.
Yellow = Caution: There is some evidence of bacterial contamination in the most recent sample.
Red = Health Advisory: Avoid contact. The beach or waterbody is under a Health Advisory due to exceeding the Water Quality Standards for bacteria in the most recent sample.
Black = Serious Risk : Elevated levels of cyanobacterial toxins were detected in the most recent sample.
Thank you to the County of Santa Cruz for conducting this monitoring to keep us all up to date on the quality of our water!