On the eve of the 31st anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act yesterday, San Diegans demonstrated they still give a hoot about their creeks, rivers and beaches.

The anniversary prompted speeches and news releases from local clean-water advocates, who accused the Bush administration and the federal Environmental Protection Agency of taking steps to loosen water pollution regulations.

Meanwhile, 80 students from Marshall Middle School and 30 from Scripps Ranch High School participated in World Water Monitoring Day by gathering samples from Los Peñasquitos Creek to be tested.

The students will post the results of their tests on the Internet and compare the findings with those from student water monitors in Mexico, Poland, New Zealand, Brazil and China.

"The point of World Water Monitoring Day is how important it is for all of us to take responsibility for the quality of our waters," said Liz Hinkle, who helped coordinate the event.

San Diego County has been "the incubation point" of a national movement to improve the nation's water-quality monitoring, said Gary Sirota, an Encinitas attorney.

Sirota, a former president of the Surfrider Foundation, worked for five years to help write and secure passage of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Act of 2000, which standardized beach water testing nationwide and provided incentives for beach communities to monitor recreational waters.

In 1991, the San Diego Chapter of Surfrider, under the guidance of ocean scientist Scott Jenkins, created the Blue Water Task Force. The volunteers and students still test local beaches and report their findings to public health officials.

Today's anniversary of the Clean Water Act is especially sweet for Coronado activist Steve Ogles, who fought complacent City Hall officials for two years to stop the dumping of polluted storm-drain water at his favorite surfing spots.

After noticing foul-smelling water gushing from city-installed storm-drain outlets in 1997, Ogles founded Coronado Friends of the Beach and recruited volunteers to test the discharge.

After discovering that the flow was contaminated with bacteria, Ogle campaigned for the city to fix the problem, an unintended side effect of installing $5.2 million worth of new storm drains. Coronado was eventually fined $154,000 for pollution violations.

City Hall has changed its attitude, Ogles said, and officials recently obtained grant funds to divert the flow from seven of nine oceanfront storm drains to the sewer system, leaving the beaches much cleaner.

"One person can make a difference," Ogles said.

Despite these local success stories, activists such as Laura Hunter of the Environmental Health Coalition are concerned that the Bush administration is poised to weaken clean-water regulations.

"The anniversary of the enactment of the Clean Water Act is a good time to celebrate the accomplishments and brace ourselves for what appears to be a massive assault on the act by the administration and polluters," she said.

"We are very concerned about attempts to roll back protections both for the military and the private sector, which are completely contrary to what the public desires," Hunter said.

Alexis Strauss, a water-quality expert with the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in San Francisco, said changes to federal water pollution regulations have been in the works for the past four years.

The latest version of the revisions is still being reviewed by officials in Washington, D.C.

"At this point it's premature to know what specific changes are going to be made and what their impact in any region would be," Strauss said.

San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye said she remains skeptical of the outcome of that review and opposes any changes.

"We don't want the rewrite and we don't need it," Frye said. "It's been the law for 31 years and we want it to stay the law."

Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Company. Used by Permissi