At Pismo Creek, show bacteria levels have been consistently high for the past six months, but no one knows why.

Every Thursday, Stanley Rice tests the bacteria levels in three Pismo Beach locations for the Surfrider Foundation.

One location is Pismo Creek. Rice, who holds a doctorate in biology, said this area has had high bacteria levels ever since he started sampling seven years ago.

According to Surfrider, only 10% of the samples taken in the last year had safe levels of bacteria. Rice said heavy rain usually helps, but that’s not the case this week.

“When the creek breaks through, when the lagoon breaks through the berm and flows into the ocean, that takes the level down in the creek here,” Rice said.

Luis Campusano is a frequent beachgoer to the area.

“It used to go to the left

See Full Page