> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Feds told to come clean
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/feds-told-to-come-clean/
- Published: 2006-08-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T19:07:58.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Environment, Downtown, #archive-import

*Environmentalists file suit to clean up ‘Beach Bums’*

SM BAY — A local environmental watchdog group Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to adopt water quality standards that could have prevented millions of people from becoming ill after swimming in contaminated beaches.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, which maintains an office in Santa Monica, found that beach closures due to hazardous bacterial contamination jumped last year by 50 percent in Los Angeles County, hitting a record high for the third consecutive year.

Across the country, the number of closings and health advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 in 2005 — the most since the NRDC began tracking the problem 16 years ago. The findings are contained in the NRDC’s annual report on water quality called “Testing the Waters.”

“A day at the beach shouldn’t be followed by a night in the rest room, or worse, a night in the emergency room,” said David Beckman, a senior attorney for the NRDC, who filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

In 2000, Congress passed the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act, or BEACH Act, in response to rising levels of bacteria found in the nation’s waters. The law required the EPA to revise current health standards and update current testing methods to provide swimmers with more accurate information before they dive into the ocean.

The EPA missed the deadline for implementation — October 2005 — and says it may not comply with the law until 2011\. The NRDC lawsuit seeks to force the EPA to move quickly, before millions more swimmers become ill.

“We’re talking about months, not years,” Beckman said of the timeline he hopes a federal judge will enact.

Jessica L. Emond, the deputy press secretary for the EPA, issued a statement Thursday in response to the lawsuit which said the Bush Administration has given more than $52 million, including $10 million this year, to states for beach monitoring.

“Because of EPA’s efforts, the number of beaches monitored has tripled over the last decade,” Emond said. “EPA is working diligently in partnership with states to increase public awareness and improve water quality to make beaches safer for swimming.

“Additionally, EPA is developing new technologies to yield faster test results,” Emond said. “With the new tests, local health agencies will be able to act more quickly to provide important information to protect the health of beach-goers.”

The NRDC lawsuit comes as the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board considers adopting bacteria pollution limits for the Santa Monica Bay during dry weather months. The board approved the pollution standards three years ago, but has failed to enforce them.

That was originally scheduled for the board’s July 13 meeting, two days before cities would have been required to comply with the new standards or face stiff penalties. That meeting was postponed until Sept. 14, creating the possibility of another lawsuit being filed, NRDC officials said.

On Thursday, Beckman, who was joined by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a polluted beach located near a storm drain just off of Santa Monica Canyon, said creating the new standards and testing methods is imperative in light of a recent study by UCLA and Stanford University which showed pollution at Southern California beaches is responsible for illnesses in as many as 1.5 million swimmers and bathers each year, with related health care and other costs for one illness — gastroenteritis, or the “stomach flu” — amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually.

With the money spent on treating illnesses such as dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments and other serious health problems, Beckman said California could remove all pollutants from storm water and other urban runoff flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

The financial health of the state also is at risk, Beckman said. With coastal economies generating roughly $2 billion a year, the state cannot afford to be passive when it comes to clean beaches, Beckman said.

The NRDC praised Santa Monica and Los Angeles for dedicating more than $500,000 to diverting and cleaning urban runoff before it reaches the bay.

In Santa Monica, the City Council has approved the construction of facilities to catch polluted water coming from city streets before it reaches the bay.

There is the Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, or SMURFF, which is located next to the Santa Monica Pier. Filtering roughly 500,000 gallons of urban runoff every day, the facility, the first of its kind in the nation, removes pollutants such as oil, grease and animal feces.

Neil Shapiro,City Hall’s urban runoff management coordinator, said a new, $1.8-million water treatment system in Mar Vista Park will open in the coming weeks to divert polluted water from the Ballona Creek from flowing into the bay. The facility, which will be operated by Santa Monica, was built in conjunction with the city and county of Los Angeles.

Shapiro said there are two other projects in the works that will further help in the cleaning of urban runoff. The projects, to be located at the western end of Montana Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, will divert contaminated water to a sewer for treatment before being released into the bay. There also will be catch basins to filter out trash and other debris.

A WATERSHED MOMENT The City Council last month approved a new watershed plan that will last for 20 years. In order to pay for the plan, the City Council also approved putting a measure on the November ballot asking property owners to agree to doubling their stormwater parcel fee, which would generate more than $3 million a year and $40 million over the next 10 years.

The fiscal needs for the Watershed plan would be a $200 million investment for the next 20 years, city officials said. They hope that Santa Monicans will contribute less than a quarter of the cost, citing access to statewide funds and a partnership with the Los Angeles County as other sources of revenue.

“I think we are far ahead of most cities because we started out in the late ’90s,” Shapiro said.

At that time, the City Council also passed a law regulating urban runoff. The ordinance requires a 0.75-inch reduction in rainfall leaving all impermeable surfaces of all newly developed parcels within the city. The ordinance also specifies guidelines for existing properties to reduce the level of contaminants that are carried by urban runoff into the bay.

That said, Santa Monica Bay is still home to some of the dirtiest beaches in the state. According to the NRDC’s report, Will Rogers State Beach near the Santa Monica Canyon was one of 22 “Beach Bums” found in the country. To qualify as a “Beach Bum,” the beach must violate federal health standards at least 50 percent of the time.

Malibu Beach and the Topanga State Beach were some of the eight popular beaches that received a dishonorable mention by the NRDC. No beaches in the state received “Beach Buddy” distinction, which is awarded only to those beaches where water quality is monitored regularly and there are no violations of federal public health standards. Those beaches also take considerable steps to reduce pollution, according to the NRDC report.

Beckman said once the EPA complies with federal law, city officials and environmentalists will better be able to warn the public of a health hazard, providing up-to-date information on water quality instead of relying on tests that are 24 to 48 hours old.Beckman also said that the new EPA standards would help cities identify the source of pollution,which is the only way beaches will be truly safe.

“You can’t make real-time decisions based on 2-day-old data,” Beckman said. “You wouldn’t rely on a weather report that only told you what conditions were like two days ago.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 4, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080406.pdf?ref=smdp.com)