County Unveils New Warning Signs for Bay Swimmers : * Pollution: Officials say they are designed to help lifeguards steer swimmers away from contaminated water flowing out of storm drains.

Los Angeles County lifeguards will be armed with a new piece of equipment this weekend as they attempt to protect the health and safety of swimmers in Santa Monica Bay.

Along with their trademark red rescue floats and first-aid kits, lifeguards from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Point Dume have received new warning signs designed to help them steer swimmers away from potentially polluted storm drain runoffs.

The warnings replace other signs that have been used by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors for about two years. The new signs, officials and environmentalists say, more clearly direct beach-goers away from storm water that pools on the beach and from ocean water immediately adjacent to the drains.

The signs will be posted next to drains only when they are flowing. Only a handful of the more than 60 flood channels that terminate at the bay flow year round. The rest are dry, except during the rainy season.

County health officials say that storm water--which can carry pet droppings, gasoline, grease, metals and a variety of other waste--has not been proven to cause illnesses. The officials for years questioned whether warnings at the drains were needed. But about two years ago, they began permitting the posting of signs, pending further research into the health effects of contact with storm water.

The unveiling of the new signs Wednesday at a surf-side news conference in Pacific Palisades was described by Catherine Tyrrell, director of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, as marking “a consensus that signing will be done in a consistent way and that it will be done by the county lifeguards.”

The Restoration Project--a partnership of government officials, environmentalists and business people trying to clean the bay--designed the new blue-and-white signs.

They read: “Caution! Storm Drain: Water and Surf May be Contaminated. No Swimming.” The warning is repeated in Spanish and includes a swimming stick figure, crossed by a red slash.

The signs replace an earlier model, in English only, that read: “Caution. Storm drain water and surf water adjacent to storm drains may be contaminated at any time. Avoid contact with storm drain water within 100 yards of storm drain flows.”

Calls for more distinctive warning signs intensified a year ago, when Restoration Project research discovered that the drain at the base of Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica was polluted with sewage. Human waste has been proven to cause stomach flu and other illnesses in swimmers, even when it is diluted by ocean water.

The design of the new signs became the subject of intense debate at Restoration Project committee meetings. Environmentalists tended to argue for a sharp warning to keep bathers out of the water, while county health officials said too stern an admonition would unnecessarily alarm beach-goers.

The signs unveiled Wednesday were a compromise. The Restoration Project purchased 1,000 of them for $14,000.

“We want people to know and understand about possible contamination,” Tyrrell said. “And then it is up to them whether they want to obey the signs or not.”

Lifeguards will use wooden sawhorses to place the signs near storm drain outlets. The guards also will advise bathers to stay out of the water, but will not clear the surf unless conditions present a clear hazard, said Chief Lifeguard Don Rohrer.

Rohrer said his lifeguards are concerned about water quality and will try to keep people away from storm water. But there are limits to their influence, Rohrer said.

Storm drains deposit silt on the ocean bottom, creating shoals and some of the coast’s best surf breaks, he said.

“The hard-core kids are not going to stay out of the water,” Rohrer said. “They are going to use the favorable bottom conditions to enhance their surfing skills.”