City Tour of Santa Monica Bay Goes Well--to a Point

The sunny, warm day aboard the city sanitation vessel Marine Surveyor was shaping up as picture-perfect Friday as the boat cruised the waters off Santa Monica--until a paper toilet seat cover floated by.

And so it goes in the campaign to persuade people that Santa Monica Bay is safe for swimming.

Persistent Doubts

Despite recent improvements in the quality of the city’s sewage treatment, officials acknowledged that the public has persistent doubts about the quality and purity of water in the bay.

The boat trip was intended to counteract reports that world-class swimmer Pat Hines became violently ill last Saturday after swimming in the bay between Will Rogers State Beach and Santa Monica Pier. Hines, a champion marathon swimmer from Santa Monica, is a member of the Heal the Bay organization.

As the boat traversed the same general area, city officials cast doubt on Hines’ claim that she got sick from swimming, although they did not rule out the possibility entirely.

“I don’t know what to make of her illness. I would be skeptical that it actually came from the bay,” said John Dorsey, biologist for the Los Angeles Sanitation Department. “There is no indication that we had something out there, but you just don’t know.”

Later, Dorsey just shrugged when two reporters told him of the floating seat cover.

Samples taken last weekend in the area where Hines was swimming showed very low bacterial levels well within swimming water standards, he said.

Dorsey, other city officials and a Heal the Bay scientist invited along for the ride all said they believe swimming in the bay is safe except in areas where storm drains enter the bay.

“I would say it’s safe to swim in the

bay provided that you don’t swim near a storm drain,” said Dorsey, who

surfs in the bay.

The Santa Monica Bay Restoration

Project, a joint effort of local, state and federal agencies and

environmental groups, plans to begin a study of health effects from storm drains next month. And Mayor Tom Bradley this week proposed a plan to impose fees on homes and businesses to begin cleaning up storm water runoff.

Dorsey said water quality samples are taken daily at 17 locations on the beach from Topanga Canyon to Malaga Cove on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Other samples are taken weekly at 11 points 1,000 feet offshore along the bay from Malibu to Palos Verdes.

“Lately, we’ve been having pretty good water quality,” Dorsey said.

As the television cameras rolled and a news radio reporter broadcast live reports via a cellular telephone, city biologist Karin Smith took two water samples 1,000 feet off Will Rogers State Beach and began analyzing them for bacterial content.

“We usually get very low counts from the near-shore samples,” she said. “Shoreline samples tend to be higher. It depends on whether it’s near a storm drain.”

Mark Gold, staff scientist for Heal the Bay, said the public should not be scared away from swimming at the beach.

“A lot of people think it’s not safe,” Gold said. “I frankly think it is safe to swim in the bay except around storm drains.”

He advised that swimmers stay 100 yards away from storm drains and stay out of the water entirely for two days after a storm.

Despite his view, Gold estimated that 25% of Heal the Bay’s 6,000 members joined the environmental organization because “they themselves got ill or knew someone who thought they got ill from swimming in the bay.”

Unsure of Illness’ Cause

Gold said he was unsure of the cause of Hines’ illness last weekend. “We don’t know whether she got sick because of a sewage spill, a boat dumping its load illegally or swimming near a storm drain that day.”

Later, at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica office, Hines repeated her contention that the symptoms she suffered--high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and weight loss--were a result of pollution she encountered during her six-mile training swim in the bay last weekend. “It was definitely the water,” she said.

Hines said she plans to distribute leaflets north of the Santa Monica Pier today warning that swimming in Santa Monica Bay may be hazardous to your health.

The leaflets in English and Spanish recommend that swimmers take precautions, including applying a protective waterproof coating such as Vasoline, wearing a bathing cap, eye goggles and earplugs and taking a shower with soap immediately after swimming. “You should protect yourself while swimming in Santa Monica Bay,” she said.

City Sanitation Department spokeswoman Anna Sklar said the boat trip was arranged after press reports of Hines’ illness because officials were “concerned about the public perception about the bay.”

Sklar said the city has been successful in its efforts to improve the quality of the 320 million gallons of waste water discharged daily five miles offshore from the massive Hyperion treatment plant.

‘Doing a Better Job’

“We are doing a better job. We’re open about our mistakes and our errors,” she said. “We’d like to be open about our successes as well.”

Robert Ghirelli, executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the city of Los Angeles has made “some very, very good improvements” in the quality of its waste water. “Based on the data we’ve been looking at, we have no indication that water quality has been deteriorating or isn’t meeting standards,” he said in an interview later.

Ghirelli said he would concur that there is “no threat from swimming in the bay” although “it’s prudent not to swim around those storm drains.”