Bay Termed Swimmable, Fishable in Most Cases

With pollution levels in Santa Monica Bay the lowest in a decade, a long-awaited report Thursday said swimming along beaches is usually safe but there is a cancer risk for some people who eat a type of fish that feeds on the sea floor.

“Yes, it is swimmable, but not after a rainfall near storm drains,” said Christine Reed, chairwoman of the Santa Monica Bay Project. “Yes, it is fishable . . . but not the (white croaker) unfortunately.”

The report, 2 1/2 years in the making, tries to pull together all that is known about the contamination of Santa Monica Bay. It was presented Thursday at a conference attended by officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies, elected officials and interested scientists.

Conditions Improve

Upbeat in tone and detail, the report said conditions in the bay have improved since the discharge of DDT off the Palos Verdes Peninsula was stopped in the 1970s. The city of Los Angeles also stopped dumping sewage sludge in the sea last year, ending 30 years of dumping that drove all sea life out of a stretch of sea bottom in the middle of the bay.

“Santa Monica Bay is cleaner than Puget Sound, cleaner than Boston Harbor, cleaner even than San Francisco Bay,” said Pat Nemeth of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a co-sponsor of the report.

The most ominous message was about the white croaker, a common fish in the bay that feeds in the sediments on the ocean floor where DDT and other dangerous pollutants have settled. Croakers have been found with high levels of DDT in their organs and plagued by disfigured fins and tumors.

Information is scarce about contamination of most bay fish, but there is evidence that anglers increase their risk of cancer by eating a regular diet of locally caught white croaker. Scientists suspect that croakers are eaten most often by anglers who fish off piers in search of food. They may also be sold in markets and restaurants as kingfish or tom cod.

The report called for more research on the contamination of fish but all but dismissed any serious threat to swimmers or surfers from contaminated water.

The only threat is minor intestinal upset from occasional sewage spills near shore and storm runoff that washes urban wastes onto beaches, said Dr. Victor Cabelli of the University of Rhode Island, who assisted in the report. “Nobody dies, nobody ends up with a permanent disability. All that happens is you end up with the three-day runs,” Cabelli said Thursday.

The most serious problem that remains is the urban storm runoff that washes oil and waste off streets and out to sea after major rainfalls and the large bed of DDT off Palos Verdes that is riding the currents northward into Santa Monica Bay, the report said.

Brought Into Program

A major effort to repair damage from those sources was kicked off Thursday when Santa Monica Bay was officially brought into the national estuaries program, created in 1987 to help improve conditions in important coastal waters.

Santa Monica Bay was added to the national program this year through an amendment sponsored in Congress by Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and an official request from Gov. George Deukmejian.

Levine disagreed with the upbeat nature of the report, saying Thursday that the health risks and environmental costs are still too high.

“We shouldn’t have to ask if it’s safe to eat the fish . . . or to swim in the bay.”