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# Dirty low down Beach surrounding pier is among the dirtiest in California
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/dirty-low-down-beach-surrounding-pier-is-among-the-dirtiest-in-california/
- Published: 2007-09-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T03:01:16.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Environment, Pier, #archive-import

*By Daily Press Staff*

SANTA MONICA BAY Despite a drought this summer, the beach surrounding the Santa Monica Pier is still the second most polluted in the state, according to a beach report card released Thursday by Heal the Bay.

The end-of-summer report card issued grades to 494 beaches up and down the state, collecting data and assessing bacterial content in the water from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

With 92 percent of the state’s beaches receiving grades of A or B, California’s shoreline fared better in 2007 than the previous year, when approximately 83 percent of the beaches earned comparable grades.

Improved infrastructure and the state’s record low rainfall this summer aided the solid performance, limiting polluted urban runoff in the storm drain and limiting bacteria level as a result.

“The combination of record drought and completed Clean Beach Initiative projects led to the cleanest summer water quality in years,” said Heal the Bay President Mark Gold in a statement on Thursday. “With more beach cleanup projects on the horizon, the prospects for this positive summer becoming a trend are great.”

Heal the Bay held its 23rd annual Coastal Cleanup Day two weeks ago, when volunteers picked close to 80,000 pounds of trash from the LA County watershed, including oddball items such as a bridal gown, an expired passport and a.357 Magnum pistol.

While the state, overall, came off well in the report card, Los Angeles County beaches could stand a course in cleanliness. Approximately 17 percent of the beaches in the county were given an F this summer.

The highlight of the county was the Santa Monica Bay, where approximately 93 percent of the beaches received A and B marks. Of the 67 monitoring locations in the Santa Monica Bay, only six received an F, including the beach at the Santa Monica Pier, which was found to be the most polluted in the region.

There have been improvements made through the LA County stormwater program, including low-flow diversions at local beaches, a public education program and partnership with Heal the Bay, said Diego Cadena, the deputy director for the county Department of Public Works.

“Clean beaches start with clean communities,” Cadena said in a statement on Thursday. “We will continue to work with the public and our city partners to encourage those behaviors that keep pollutants out of storm drains and away from our county coast.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 28, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092807.pdf?ref=smdp.com)