Last month, in upwards of 200,000 locals and tourists alike, descended upon two staples of summertime in San Diego: Opening Day at the Del Mar Racetrack and Comic Con International.
Both events took place adjacent to two significant bodies of water: San Dieguito Lagoon and San Diego Bay. Let’s not forget to mention the beautiful stretch of ocean that makes up the Del Mar coastline. I mean really, where else does the ‘Surf Meet the Turf’.
To pay homage to these local waterways, let’s take a look at what’s been happening lately around each:
While Opening Day revelers were playing the ponies (46,588 to be exact, the largest crowd ever recorded), the San Dieguito Lagoon Restoration carried on. The lagoon is nestled comfortably in the Fairgrounds’ backyard. My bet is that not too many attendees at the track knew about the immense project taking place just a stone’s throw away.
The lagoon’s restoration project has entered its final stages. As stated on the SDRP (San Dieguito River Park) website “the goal of the project is to preserve, improve and create a variety of impacts within the project site to maintain fish and wildlife to ensure the protection of endangered species.”
Check out a blog post from this past January by San Diego Coastkeeper Lab Coordinator, Travis Pritchard, outlining collaborative water sampling at the restoration site.
Just a day later, Comic Con kicked off its 42nd installment in SD’s Gaslamp. Masses of costumed guests packed the bay-front for the world’s largest pop-culture convention.
The Comic Con guests were most likely unfamiliar with some real-life superheroes currently working to protect San Diego Bay from harmful toxins. Coastkeeper Attorneys Gabe Solmer and Jill Witkowski have been working feverishly to get the Regional Water Quality Control Board to adopt a cleanup an abatement for pollutants in San Diego Bay.
This area, just south of the Convention Center, is in desperate need of some TLC. The Regional Board will hopefully finalize a game-plan for the “Shipyard Sediment Site” by the year’s end.
Big ups to San Diego’s own crusaders, Gabe and Jill, for playing such a crucial role in this process. For those of you who’d like to learn more about the bay’s sediment remediation, San Diego Coastkeeper will host its next ‘Signs of the Tide’ community forum on August 6. This installment is coincidentally titled “San Diego Bay’s Dirty Little Secret.”
For every major event that takes place in San Diego, chances are there’s a body of water not too far away that San Diego Coastkeeper is working to protect. Although our friends who attended Opening Day and Comic Con may not have known it, it’s groups like Coastkeeper, that stand up day-in and day-out, to keep this city clean and beautiful.
Us locals deserve it.
As do those just dropping by to say hello.
