SurfSafeSLO

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

County of San Luis Obispo residents and visitors have benefited from the enhanced development of an innovative ocean water quality monitoring and public notification program, Surf Safe San Luis Obispo. In collaboration with stakeholders over the last four years, the program has evolved to provide the public with better access to more accurate, modern, and timely information. Rather than just providing the status of beaches out of compliance, public information is now made available using the mobile friendly SurfSafeSLO.org website that displays a dashboard containing the latest water sampling results, along with a map depicting each sampling points status, whether in compliance or not. A dashboard containing three years of monitoring results is also available on the website, in addition to information about the program. Notably, an innovative notification system using rain gauges located in key watersheds was developed as part of this effort to electronically alert key staff when a rainwater advisory should be provided, warning the public that there may be health risk from water contact for up to 72 hours. The collaboration continues to thrive today with a multi-stakeholder effort to identify potential reasons for ocean water quality standards exceedances at a high priority ocean/creek interface.