Beaches Still Fall Short on Pollution Report Card

The lingering effects of last year’s El Nino-fueled storms and sewage runoff from this year’s sporadic downpours produced another season of poor water quality grades at Los Angeles County beaches, the environmental group Heal the Bay said Wednesday.

In a Memorial Day weekend tradition, the regional environmental group released its ninth annual ocean safety report card and once again warned beach-goers to avoid bacteria laden swimming areas.

“Overall, this year’s water quality is comparable, almost as bad as last year,” Heal the Bay Director Mark Gold said at a news conference at Will Rogers State Beach below Pacific Palisades.

The annual report grades beaches on a scale of A to F, with an F going to beaches where the amount of fecal bacteria is high and so is the risk of contracting illness. The report ranks 61 locations along county beaches that attract 60 million visitors annually, Gold said.

In this year’s report, Los Angeles County beaches received roughly the same grades as last year, with 34 A’s and six F’s during the dry season; and eight A’s and 22 F’s when the rains cause harmful contaminates to flow more easily into the ocean. Among the beaches receiving failing grades, the report singled out Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey, Surfrider Beach in Malibu and Cabrillo Beach inside the breakwater in San Pedro as the most polluted beaches in the county.

Heal the Bay’s statistics are based on daily and weekly water quality monitoring data gathered by Santa Monica’s Environmental Monitoring Division and the county’s Department of Health Services and Sanitation Districts.

The Department of Health Services recommends that beach-goers avoid contact with ocean water for three days after a rainstorm.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Gold also announced plans to expand the group’s weekly report card from its current 61 locations in Los Angeles County to a total of 250 beaches, including Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties. Gold said he would support posting letter grades on lifeguard towers similar to the ones used to rate restaurants.

Gold criticized the state’s slowness in enforcing a law that requires statewide water quality monitoring. “It’s ridiculous and something that needs to happen immediately,” he said.

But not far from the news conference, a family of bathers were enjoying a romp in the drain water despite a clear warning sign that read: “drain water may cause illness.”

“I’ve been swimming in this water for 35 years since I was a child without any problems,” said John Ashton, a neighbor who was sunbathing while his 3-year-old daughter Sabrina waded in the water. “I know that after it rains you are not supposed to go into the water, but there is nothing wrong with the water now. I’ve never gotten sick.”

Gold, however, said that was a risk that others shouldn’t be willing to take.

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Bay Watch

Heal the Bay’s ninth report card on area beaches from last May to this April shows little improvement over the previous year’s rankings.