Some Beaches Have Less to Offer

Many California beach cities and environmental groups are furious with a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that has derided the quality of West Coast beaches while touting those on the East Coast that pay to be on the group’s own list.

In Florida, many beach cities and visitor bureaus say they happily pay to be on the Clean Beaches Council’s annual list of “Blue Wave certified” beaches, a distinction that helps them compete for tourist dollars. But many of their peers in California -- where organizations such as Heal the Bay provide impartial ratings of beach and water quality -- complain that the council is pressuring them to pay for certification.

“It’s an effort to blackmail cities,” said Steve Aceti, executive director of the California Coastal Coalition, a beach advocacy group whose membership includes more than 40 cities and counties. “This campaign is designed to make cities feel threatened if they’re not on the list. It’s tantamount to a shakedown.”

Founded in 1998, the Clean Beaches Council names 53 beaches in 10 states on its latest list, issued last month. In interviews with reporters, Clean Beaches Council founder and President Walter McLeod suggested that West Coast beaches weren’t qualified.

Asked June 25 by CNN why no West Coast beaches are listed, McLeod replied: “We toughened our criteria last year, which means that beaches have to build up to become certified.”

A year earlier, McLeod offered similar statements, telling the public radio show “Savvy Traveler” that California beaches were not on his list because the state “has challenges when it comes to its beaches being used year-round and keeping them up to the standard of Blue Wave.”

But Aceti said McLeod has invited many California cities and counties to join the list -- for a price. The Clean Beaches Council charges $2,500 per beach for the first year and $1,250 per year for renewals, McLeod said.

Among those approached was Santa Barbara, where city creek restoration program manager Jill Zachary was not impressed. “All of our beaches already have signage related to water quality,” Zachary said. “I wasn’t sure what kind of benefit it would have for us.”

Genevieve Anton, a publicist for the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, called McLeod to complain that he was making public comments about California beaches without firsthand knowledge.

“It just seems unconscionable to me that he would single out beaches in California for criticism,” said Anton, acknowledging that Huntington Beach has had problems with water quality. “We have no problem with a national list of clean beaches ... but we’re certainly not interested in paying $2,500 for somebody on the East Coast to look at monitoring results that have already been completed and tell us what we already know.”

McLeod denied that he tries to pressure cities to join by criticizing their beaches.

“We never say bad things about beaches,” McLeod said in a telephone interview. “We don’t go out and say these are the only clean beaches in the country.” He said his comments were misinterpreted -- though he acknowledged his comments to CNN suggesting that West Coast beaches were rejected may have been misleading.

“I probably may have mis-conveyed that it was [quality] criteria alone that caused California or Hawaii not to be in the program,” McLeod said. “If that was communicated, then that’s certainly not what we intended.”

Part of his group’s stated mission is to identify the nation’s clean and healthy beaches and to aid the beach-going public. McLeod said he got the idea from Europe’s Blue Flag program, whose certifications are widely used in 25 countries.

He said the beaches on his list are judged on more than 25 criteria, including water quality and restroom cleanliness, and are certified on a pass-fail basis. Those that pass must post steel signs at their beaches and fly the organization’s signature blue flag. The group does not conduct water quality tests of its own.

McLeod said the fees he charges pay for experts to review water quality data produced by local governments and conduct visual inspections of the beaches. And not all beaches that apply qualify for listing, he said, though he declined to name any that have been rejected.

Government agencies or tourist bureaus that apply for listing need not pay for beaches that are not certified, he said.

Many environmentalists say they approve of the idea of a national beach report card that would hold local agencies accountable for the quality of the water and facilities.

But criteria for winning Blue Wave certification are so vague that even a notoriously dirty beach such as Doheny State Beach in Orange County could pass, some said. The criteria include “adequate, clean toilet facilities ... within walking distance” and “mechanisms” to issue health advisories or closures due to contamination.

“In theory, your beach could be closed every day and you’re following the standards and issuing advisories,” said Chad Nelsen, environmental director at the Surfrider Foundation. “There’s no threshold of actual water quality that needs to be met.”

More seriously, critics contend, the Clean Beaches Council arrangement creates a conflict of interest that reduces the value of its list as a guide to the public; the council has a natural incentive to list a beach as clean because its income depends on the number of certified beaches.

They point out that other nonprofit organizations that rate ocean water quality and beaches do not charge for the service. In California, environmental groups such as Surfrider and Heal the Bay produce beach report cards but raise money from a wide range of donors.

“You never see an environmental nonprofit charge applicants to do that,” said Mark Gold, executive director for Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay, which publishes weekly water quality reports on more than 450 beaches. “They need to figure out other ways to raise funds for this program rather than just getting more applicants.”

Environmentalists also said the Blue Wave system is less than helpful to the public.

“It’s just inherently skewed because you don’t know if [beaches] aren’t on the list because they’re not qualified or because they’re not paying,” said Nelsen.

Three Florida beaches certified for 2004 were, in fact, labeled as “beach bums” by the Natural Resources Defense Council a year earlier for failing to monitor water quality despite having sources of pollution nearby.

“Monitoring ultimately has to be the gold standard of [whether] a beach is determined to be clean,” said David Beckman at the council. “If they’re not doing significant monitoring, then there’s no indicator to predict if you and your family will have a safe and healthy day at the beach.”

While many California cities are hostile to the council, it has flourished on the East Coast -- particularly in Florida. More than three-fourths of the beaches on the latest Blue Wave list are in Florida.

The annual fee is merely “the cost of bragging rights,” said Stephen Higgins, beach erosion administrator for Broward County, Fla. “You get big steel signs to mount on poles, flags ... plus you get inspections. This is no mail-order reward. They look at every aspect of your beach management system.”

Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the local Blue Wave beach listing -- touted in the bureau’s brochures -- a valuable asset.

“Our relationship with the Blue Wave campaign gives us that marketing edge,” she said. “It’s an absolutely marketable product.”

But not everyone in Florida has been so keen on riding the Blue Wave. Joe Wooden, deputy chief for Volusia County Beach Patrol in Florida, oversees more than 40 miles of coastline, including Daytona Beach.

He said the Clean Beaches Council seemed more interested in how much money it could collect rather than providing public safety information.

“They wanted us to pay for each individual beach,” Wooden said. “At that point, I realized maybe they were not interested in providing good material for people, and [were] more money-driven.”