weberwithoneb

The Nature Track at Wentworth Falls

Hayley and I hiked the Nature Track Circuit at Wentworth Falls last weekend. The trail is about an hour’s drive from Sydney.

The trail winds through temperate rainforest packed with ferns, eucalypts and waterfalls. Aside from a few abseilers, we didn’t see anyone until the very end of the trail. About a third of the way along is Edinburgh Castle Rock, a natural lookout that provides sweeping views of the surrounding mountains.

The trail quickly descends into Lillian’s Glen, a nice area with a stream and stone steps to walk across.

After passing a small rest area the trail climbs up past the Empress Falls- worthy of a detour- and over to the Queen Victoria Lookout. The trail ends back where it started at the Conservation Hut.

After our hike, we walked around Leura and Katoomba, two charming mountain towns. We had delicious veggie burgers at a restaurant that sold both food and hats in Katoomba, and walked around the main shopping area. That weekend, Leura was hosting a 1920s festival with Model-T looking cars from Australia’s early automotive days. We ended the day with tea at a tea pot collectors’ shop. I’ve never seen so many tea pots in my life; it was a bit disturbing.

California Water Quality Suffers

I always check Earth 911 before Surfing to reduce the chances of contracting staph infections or other horrible diseases from the Ocean. See here for the gory details. Today I checked the report and as usual, it’s not up to date. The little bubbles for my local beaches are all filled white, meaning “No Data Available.” I checked a few days ago, and they were all Yellow and Red from the last month-long cluster of storms.

So I decided to do some research. According to Earth 911, the San Diego Department of Environmental Health (DEH) takes hundreds of samples weekly and posts findings on the Earth 911 website. I did a quick google search and found the main San Diego DEH website. The top of the website reads:

Unfortunately due to the Governor’s line item veto of funding for the Beach Safety Act from the State Budget on September 23rd, 2008, DEH will no longer be able to provide the following services:

• Routine water quality sampling and analysis of results for the County’s beaches
• Issuance of water contact advisories based upon bacterial exceedances
• Complaint investigation of suspected contamination
• Daily email, web updates (beaches911.com), pod-casts and fax updates of beach water quality.

DEH will provide limited services listed below:

• Receive reports of sewage spills and issue water contact closures when those reports indicate possible sewage contamination at public beaches
• Notification of closures will be limited to a press release, signs posted on the beach and messages on the DEH phone hotline 619-338-2073.

We would like to remind the beach going public that:

• Beaches with the highest risk of contamination are near flowing storm drain, river, and lagoon outlets.
• Water quality at all beaches can be contaminated by urban runoff for up to 3 days following significant rainfall
• Historical monitoring data indicates water quality at most beaches in the county is generally good during dry weather.

I know everyone has to sacrifice something in this economic crisis, but how much could these samples possibly cost the state? We are forty billion dollars in debt. I would be surprised if this topped five million dollars per year. That is one eight-thousandth of our debt. If you had eight thousand dollars, what is a dollar to you?

The governor sucks. Line item veto, my @.