If you are having trouble connecting the manure to water quality consider that this National Seashore ranks in the top 10 percent of U.S. locations most contaminated by feces indicated by E. coli bacteria.”
The following are quotes taken directly from the park’s 2013 coastal watershed assessment:
“The effects of historic grazing practices are evident and pervasive, including gully erosion, soil compaction, nutrient enrichment, altered hydrology, increased vegetation cover of non-native pest plant species, and non-native pasture species that have naturalized from plantings and are now expanding into adjacent areas
The NPS Coastal Watershed Assessment for PRNS (2013) found severe pollution occurred at the following dairy locations: North Kehoe Creek, J Ranch and K Ranch property line, L Ranch Impact Yard, A and B dairy ranches, and the McClure’s dairy swale. Each of the aforementioned dairies measured conductivity (an indicator of dissolved solids) above 1700 µS/cm. This is double the lethal level for freshwater fish (NPS, 2013).
Streams and tributaries leading to Drake’s Estero (a federally protected wilderness), adjacent to a number of the dairies mentioned above (A Ranch, B Ranch, and C Ranch), all had a significant number of dissolved oxygen samples below the optimum range, posing a potential threat fish in these streams.