Elevated bacteria levels found in ocean in Pismo Beach

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• Pismo Beach pigeons met with pier blocks

  Pismo Beach pigeons met with pier blocks

  Pismo Beach officials are continuing their efforts to get a flock of pigeons to move on and roost elsewhere.

  Pigeons living under the Pismo Beach Pier, which at one point numbered more than 450, have been blamed for water quality problems in the immediate ocean and nearby beach.

  The City Council this week approved spending $100,000 on the second phase of a plan to reduce the pigeon population. The first phase, completed last year, blocked some of the nesting sites while repair work was conducted on the pier.

• Beach monitoring data is merely a click away

  Beach monitoring data is merely a click away

  The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department has made its beach monitoring website interactive.

  The site shows the water quality at the 19 most popular beaches in the county. It also contains information about alerts and advisories in the event of sewage spills.

  But the website upgrade comes as the beach monitoring program is in danger of losing some of its funding. The Obama administration has proposed eliminating a federal program that helps fund such monitoring.

• Sewage spill closes beaches in Long Beach

  Sewage spill closes beaches in Long Beach

  Swimmers are being warned to stay out of the water at beaches in Long Beach because of a weekend sewage spill.

• EPA decision to defund water testing creates risk

  EPA decision to defund water testing creates risk

  The federal Environmental Protection Agency has hung coastal counties out to dry by threatening to withdraw all funding for ocean water testing.

  At issue is $10 million in annual grants that have helped state and local agencies — including San Luis Obispo County — test ocean water for contaminants that can make swimmers sick.

  While funding is secure for the coming fiscal year ending in June 2013, the EPA is proposing to discontinue it after that.

• Cambria desalination plan dealt a blow

  Cambria desalination plan dealt a blow

  An Army Corps of Engineers’ project to test the soil and sample water near the mouth of Santa Rosa Creek is not consistent with the state’s rules and goals for the habitat and coastline there, the California Coastal Commission ruled during a hearing Dec. 9.

  Whether that unanimous decision will be a death knell for the proposed tests there — and ultimately for intake and outfall facilities for a Cambria Community Services District desalination plant — is yet to be determined.

  Such a plant would be located elsewhere, off the beach.