Santa Monica Bay Found to Be Cleaner : Environment: Water in some areas is much freer of pollution than a year ago, group reports. But swimmers should avoid some locations.

In a surprise turnaround for a recreation zone that Southlanders love to hate, the Santa Monica Bay has been deemed cleaner to swim in for the first time since a local environmental group began grading its water quality annually three years ago.

“Beaches can improve over time,” said Mark Gold, staff scientist for Heal the Bay, a nonprofit organization that promotes the healthy and safety of area beaches. “With the efforts of the public and government agencies, the water quality at beaches can be improved. This year demonstrates that fact.”

But is it safe to swim in the highly used area, which stretches from Point Dume south to the Palos Verdes Peninsula? Not necessarily. Pollution levels can be gauged, Gold said, but not enough is known about the human health risks of the contaminants found off the coast of Los Angeles County to say what is and is not safe.

“Although Santa Monica Bay is polluted,” he said, the worst problems are in small areas, particularly around piers and storm drains.

The beach’s report card advises people to stay away from the Santa Monica Canyon storm drain in Pacific Palisades, which empties onto the popular Will Rogers State Beach. The area dropped from a lowly D grade last year to an F this year. Will Rogers, Malibu Lagoon and Ballona Creek “were by far the most contaminated areas in the bay.”

Other areas that show relatively high levels of so-called indicator bacteria--total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococcus--include the Santa Monica Pier, Mother’s Beach near the Venice Pier and the Redondo Pier.

On a more positive note, the Pico/Kenter storm drain, which flows onto Santa Monica Beach was diverted over the last 12 months, making the beach “the most improved along the bay,” the report said. Its grade rose from D to A since last year’s report. Latigo Beach also was cleaner in the 1992-1993 study.

Beach pollution in Los Angeles County is largely a product of urban runoff--an accumulation of domestic and commercial waste dumped or inadvertently washed into storm drains throughout the county and swept into Santa Monica Bay.

The pollutants include pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, animal waste, oil from leaking cars and many other contaminants that make their way into gutters and eventually get washed into the ocean--particularly in rainy weather.

To compile its annual report card, Heal the Bay uses data collected by the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. This year, for the first time, it split its report into a water-quality count for the dry season--some 320 days of the year--and the rainy season.

“During dry weather, 90% of the beaches are clean beaches, A beaches,” Gold said. “During wet weather every beach is a D or F. There’s been some (perception) that the entire bay is laden with bacteria. That’s only the case during rainfall.”

Bob Hayes, spokesman for the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, says that water quality has improved in the bay since 1987 when the Hyperion Treatment Plant came on line. “Instead of putting any sewage in the bay, we take sludge and turn it into something that is beneficial,” Hayes said. “Consequently the only times we’ve had an impact on the bay is when we’ve had heavy storms.”

Regardless of improved water quality in Santa Monica Bay, the environmental group said that bathers should still take precautions when they go into the water. “People should not swim until three days after a rainstorm or near the large piers in Santa Monica and Redondo beaches or near flowing storm drains,” Gold said.

Among its recommendations, Heal the Bay is advocating a gutter patrol program to keep people from using storm drains as trash cans. It also wants continued research on viral contamination of sewage and sediments in storm drains discharging into the Santa Monica Bay.