Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mission Bay? Eww

Once a natural wetland, now an aquatic park of biological pollution

Mission Bay back in the day
Mission Bay back in the day

Long known as False Bay, the former marshlands were dredged between the 1940s and 1960s to create Mission Bay, the nation’s largest man-made aquatic park, much of it islands and peninsulas.

While not scarred by industry to the point of San Diego Bay, Mission Bay faces challenges. “We don’t really have the toxic waste or hazardous waste issues, but more biological pollution,” says John Anderson, who works with the local water control board. “Fecal coliform bacteria levels are quite high.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to Travis Pritchard, a program director with San Diego Coastkeeper, poor design choices when dredging the old False Bay and constructing the Mission Bay park have led to most of the site’s water-quality problems.

“It was a natural wetland, and in the ’40s we said, ‘You know what would be fun? Let’s dig up this wetland and have a recreational bay!’” Pritchard says, noting that between the bay’s narrow inlet, water circulation is blocked by SeaWorld’s marina, Paradise Point, Crown Point, and Fiesta Island before reaching the two fresh water sources that feed the bay from its eastern and northeastern edges. The route that water has to take to the ocean means much less of it is being exchanged through tidal flow than in a natural bay or lagoon.

“Mission Bay’s pressures mainly stem from inland waters being discharged at Tecolote Creek and Rose Creek,” Pritchard explains. “One of the problems with Mission Bay is that [the creeks] come in at the eastern edge of the bay, and because it’s a constructed wetland, that part of the bay doesn’t have great circulation.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mid-range fleet scoring bluefin limits off Ensenada

Rockfish to open at all depths April 1st (no foolin’)
Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Mission Bay back in the day
Mission Bay back in the day

Long known as False Bay, the former marshlands were dredged between the 1940s and 1960s to create Mission Bay, the nation’s largest man-made aquatic park, much of it islands and peninsulas.

While not scarred by industry to the point of San Diego Bay, Mission Bay faces challenges. “We don’t really have the toxic waste or hazardous waste issues, but more biological pollution,” says John Anderson, who works with the local water control board. “Fecal coliform bacteria levels are quite high.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to Travis Pritchard, a program director with San Diego Coastkeeper, poor design choices when dredging the old False Bay and constructing the Mission Bay park have led to most of the site’s water-quality problems.

“It was a natural wetland, and in the ’40s we said, ‘You know what would be fun? Let’s dig up this wetland and have a recreational bay!’” Pritchard says, noting that between the bay’s narrow inlet, water circulation is blocked by SeaWorld’s marina, Paradise Point, Crown Point, and Fiesta Island before reaching the two fresh water sources that feed the bay from its eastern and northeastern edges. The route that water has to take to the ocean means much less of it is being exchanged through tidal flow than in a natural bay or lagoon.

“Mission Bay’s pressures mainly stem from inland waters being discharged at Tecolote Creek and Rose Creek,” Pritchard explains. “One of the problems with Mission Bay is that [the creeks] come in at the eastern edge of the bay, and because it’s a constructed wetland, that part of the bay doesn’t have great circulation.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego

Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.