Pegging them as “Surfing’s Dynamic Duo,” National Geographic profiles Skip and Donna Frye, praising the legendary surfer and his councilwoman wife for their clean water activism. In highlighting the good work the article also misrepresents some aspects of the local clean beaches movement. Early on it draws parallels between the very different sewage and storm water systems. It is the storm water system that continues to foul local beaches as the runoff from streets and litter flows to the coast, particularly when it rains.

Coastal sewage problems occur primarily when a local line breaks; the main system dumps 4.5 miles off the coast into waters 320 feet deep, after being treated at advanced primary levels. Completed in 1993, it was a system fought for by a group that included the later Roger Revelle, the United States’ preeminent marine scientist and Al Gore’s favorite authority to cite on global warming. The Metropolitan Wastewater Department has two boats out 200-plus days a year monitoring the waters from Del Mar down to Mexico, and five miles beyond the outfall. All of the findings on a daily basis are sent to the EPA and state water regulators for review. The system recently received, for the 12th year in a row, 100 percent compliance for all discharge permits from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

In the July feature, National Geographic also presents Councilwoman Frye as a minority Democrat in a largely Republican town. But on the council she joined a Democrat majority that has held, even after the federal prosecution of three Democrat members of the council resulted in three new members, among them two Democrats. San Diegans love their beaches, which is why the financially pressed municipality has been able to lower beach closures each year. Few remember when Mission Bay was closed for months; it was that long ago. Of course San Diegans’ love for their beaches only goes so far. When in a recent mayoral election Republican Pete Davis wanted to boost the tax on hotels and spend the money on beach water quality, it wasn’t enough to get him elected and the idea died with his candidacy. For now, South Bay’s coastline is the only place persistently suffering from pollution. But that’s caused by effluent flowing from Mexico, a situation the Bajagua treatment plant, approved earlier this year by the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, would address.

Councilwoman Frye and Skip Frye deserve accolades for their commitment to our shoreline. They don’t deserve to have their work tarnished by misrepresentations from one of the world’s most trusted nature magazines.

—Tim McClain