Beaches still failing
By MILOS BLAGOJEVIC Special to the Daily Press
SM BEACH — It appears bay pollution is getting worse instead of better, despite clean water standards established three years ago.
A list of 10 beaches — including the beach at Santa Monica Pier and Will Rogers State Beach at Santa Monica Canyon — last week were found to be in violation of the Clean Water Act by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services environmental monitoring division and the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, according to Heal the Bay, a nonprofit organization.
The list is up from six in Heal the Bay’s last report, and it now includes other popular spots like Cabrillo Beach and Topanga State Beach at Topanga Creek, which showed high levels of fecal bacteria in the water.
“This continues the trend of about 10 beaches that exceed the new beach bacteria standards in violation of the Clean Water Act,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay. “While this is a relatively small number, we urge the coastal cities responsible and LA County to protect public health by immediately posting warning signs at the beaches, to come forward with plans to clean up these beaches and do everything possible to comply with the law as soon as possible.”
The findings come three weeks after the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) was to vote on whether to require local cities and LA County to comply with new beach water quality standards every day during the summer months. The standards would have taken effect July 15.
But the RWQCB decided to postpone the vote, which is now scheduled for the board’s meeting on Sept. 14. The decision could establish new stricter guidelines for surface water pollutants, including posing fines on cities that have contaminated water levels.
“We thought it was necessary to postpone it so we could address the procedural issues we needed to address,”said Jonathan Bishop, regional director of the RWQCB. “I’m not especially unhappy about it myself.
“There was no good reason for us to move forward if we have procedural problems.”
Meanwhile, Heal the Bay is pushing for action before the Sept. 14 vote, including an open letter to Bishop on the organization’s Web site asking the RWQCB to take immediate action to keep the beaches safe.
Other beaches Heal the Bay said were in violation of the Clean Water Act include Dockweiler State Beach at Imperial Highway; Redondo Beach Pier; Dockweiler State Beach at Ballona Creek; Marie Canyon at Puerco Beach in Malibu; Castlerock storm drain near Topanga Canyon and Las Tunas County Beach at Tuna Canyon.
It estimated that up to 1.5 million swimmers and surfers get gastrointestinal illnesses (stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting) from bacterial pollution at beaches on 100 miles of shoreline in LA and Orange counties.
The new standards, called Total Maximum Daily Loads, (TMDLs), require beach waters and discharges from storm drains to be free from unhealthy levels of fecal bacteria. They would apply to all Santa Monica Bay beaches from the Ventura County line south to Palos Verdes during dry weather, between April and October, when tens of millions of residents and visitors use the beach.
“No beaches during the summer dry weather should be exceeding any sort of bacteria,” said James Alamillo, the beach report card manager for Heal the Bay.
In 1999, Heal the Bay, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Santa Monica Baykeeper went to court to fight for — and won — water quality pollution limits for in Los Angeles and Ventura County. The beach bacteria limits for Santa Monica Bay were established in 2003.
Many of Santa Monica Bay’s beaches still have elevated bacteria levels. In order to be easily enforceable, the bacteria pollution limits need to be incorporated into the LA County Storm Water permit by the RWQCB, Heal the Bay officials said.
Heal the Bay recommends beachgoers check the Beach Report Card at www.healthebay.org before heading into the surf at their favorite beaches.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2006. Read the original PDF.