Bay Pollution Down, Study Says : Environment: Group finds less bacteria off Santa Monica Bay beaches for third straight year. But it says effort to weaken U.S. water controls could reverse that trend.

Pollution in Santa Monica Bay has decreased for the third year in a row, but a report released Thursday by a local environmental group warns that efforts to clean it up may be reversed if proposals to weaken the nation’s water quality law succeed.

“More threatening than high bacteria counts is the all-out attack in Congress against the Clean Water Act,” said Roger Gorke, a science and policy analyst with Heal the Bay, a nonprofit organization that promotes the health and safety of area beaches.

Gorke warned that revisions to the landmark 1972 federal law, already approved by the House, would devastate several years of efforts to clean up the bay.

Because of the sweeping changes proposed as part of revising the law, Heal the Bay’s annual report card of beaches between Malibu and the Palos Verdes Peninsula is unusually somber, despite noting “staggering” improvements since it began grading the beaches five years ago.

The report, which is the only comprehensive review of water quality at Los Angeles County beaches, cites major overall improvement among the 60 locations monitored either weekly or daily throughout the year.

It gives all beaches south of Ballona Creek an A except for the beach south of Redondo Pier. South Bay beaches generally fare well, the report said, because its watershed, or area that drains runoff and storm water to the ocean, is relatively small.

Other areas that received high marks were in Venice, stretches of Santa Monica and the northern end of the county.

But there were problem spots.

In its grading scheme of A to F, the group singled out seven beaches that earned a D or F even during dry weather, including Malibu’s popular Surfrider Beach, the beach near the Santa Monica Pier, Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey and Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro.

The report cited Mother’s Beach as especially troublesome and strongly recommended that swimmers avoid it because of high levels of so-called indicator bacteria there.

The bay’s most notorious pollution point, where Ballona Creek empties into the ocean--and where people swim, fish, use Jet Skis and row crew--escaped the report’s condemnation this year only because Los Angeles officials discontinued the test site there.

“Ballona Creek is an F by acclamation,” Gorke said. “That’s a given.”

Gorke, who authored the report, said that if federal water quality standards are weakened, “there is the very real possibility we could see the undoing of all the good that has been done.”

The bill approved by the House on May 16 makes storm-water management completely voluntary, eliminating all permits that require a city or county to comply with regulations to control the flow and toxicity of storm runoff.

Industries, construction sites and cities with fewer than 100,000 residents--which would be 78 of Los Angeles County’s 89 cities--would be exempted from storm-water requirements. Barring significant changes in the Senate, President Clinton has threatened to veto the legislation.

In a departure from what is usually a strict analysis of beach pollution, the report rebuts arguments for relaxing government water quality regulations, saying that the arguments “do not make much sense” environmentally or economically.

Noting that 51 million people visited Los Angeles County beaches last year and that visitors spent about $2 billion on coastal-related tourism in Southern California, the report touts Santa Monica Bay as an economic and environmental treasure.

“More lenient regulations will lead to degraded beaches, and Heal the Bay believes that visitors stay away from unsafe, polluted beaches,” the report said.

It cites as an example the bay’s $55-million-a-year sportfishing industry, which “depends on the public’s perception of the water being clean enough for fish to be safe to eat.”

Beach pollution in the county is largely the result of urban runoff--an accumulation of domestic and commercial waste dumped or inadvertently washed into storm drains and swept into the bay.

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Bay Watch Heal the Bay’s report card of area beaches shows overall improvement for the third year in a row, but several beaches-including Malibu’s Surfrider and the beach near the Santa Monica Pier-draw consistently poor marks. Grades shown here are for dry weather. 1. Leo Carillo Beach: A 2. Latigo Shore Drive: B 3. Malibu Point: B 4. Surfrider Beach: F 5. Malibu Pier: D 6. Topanga Point: C 7. North end of Will Rogers Beach: C 8. Santa Monica Canyon: D 9. Santa Monica Pier, 50 yards south: F 10. Pico / Kenter storm drain: C 11. Ashland storm drain: F 12. Venice Pier: A 13. Mother’s Beach: F 14. Manhatten Pier: A 15. Hermosa Pier: A 16. Redondo Pier, 50 yards south: C