City just might pay for its poor grades
MALIBU PIER — While great strides have been made in improving water quality at local beaches, areas of the Santa Monica Bay continue to be plagued by high levels of toxic bacteria, according to a report by an environmental group that tracks water quality along the California coast.
Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up the bay, released its 16th annual Beach Report Card on Wednesday, giving out grades to more than 450 California beaches based on their levels of bacterial pollution, the majority of which comes from urban run-off.
In Santa Monica, Heal the Bay identified Will Rogers State Beach and areas immediately adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier as two of the top five “Beach Bummers” because of their poor water quality. During dry weather — when bacteria levels are typically lower because of an absence of storm water runoff — both areas still received failing grades. They also received F’s during wet weather months.
A poor grade means beachgoers face a higher risk of contracting illness, such as stomach flu, ear infections, upper-respiratory infections and skin rashes.
“The city takes water pollution as serious as any other city in the entire state, unfortunately, they still have major problems,” said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay.
This is bad news for City Hall, which could face penalties as high as $10,000 for every day those areas do not comply with strict water quality standards approved by the Water Quality Regional Control Board. Those standards go into effect July 15.
Representatives from the agency said fines are highly unlikely, given this is the first year the new limits will be put into effect. Santa Monica has also shown good faith towards compliance, having made significant strides in improving water quality, such as the installation of an urban runoff collection and treatment system, said David Nahai, chair of the Los Angeles control board.
“The city of Santa Monica has traditionally been a leader in water quality … and I think we can expect them to continue to perform strongly,” Nahai said. “However, we’ll have to be diligent in monitoring so that we make sure everyone is in compliance.”
NO CLEAN SLATE The beach report cards and reviews ripe for improvement come on the heels of a recent study done by UCLA researchers that found sand also plays a surprising role in determining a given beach’s water quality. The study took multiple samples from beaches across LA County, and found that those known for poor water quality also typically had high levels of fecal bacteria in their sand, containing pathogens that can cause illnesses.
The worst of those tested, according to Heal the Bay scientist Mitzy Taggart, were those beaches tucked behind breakwalls with calm, shallow waters that sit stagnant for longer periods.
“The study indicates that even if you clean up the water, the sand can still act as an incubator of bacteria, storing it and helping it to develop,” said Taggart. “This means we may have to clean up the sand as well.”
The correlation between beaches with poor water quality and tainted sand samples proves the necessity for more studies akin to the one performed at UCLA, Taggart suggests.
In addressing the poor water quality at the pier and at locations near storm drains, Neal Shapiro, City Hall’s urban runoff management coordinator, said a study will begin in the coming weeks that will look at the urban runoff treatment system to see if there are gaps that have lead to some of the poor grades given by Heal the Bay.
In addition, Shapiro said pier garbage collection has been moved off the pier to guard against possible leakage over the waters.
City staff will look at ways to reduce pollution around the pier as well, Shapiro said, including a program that might keep the large bird population in check by warding them off via decoys. Shapiro said there is also a problem with the homeless defecating underneath the pier, and something may need to be done about that.
“We are very confident that with the measures in place, we will be able to meet the requirements set by the water quality control board,” Shapiro said.
The news wasn’t all bad for Santa Monica and the rest of Los Angeles County. According to Heal the Bay, vast expanses of California beaches got a letter grade of A, including the South Bay of Los Angeles County, Palos Verdes, and the stretch from Seal Beach to Huntington Beach.
In Santa Monica, areas just west of Montana Avenue, a previous hot spot for bacteria, received a letter grade of A during dry weather, and a B during wet weather. Those are the same grades received by areas west of Wilshire Boulevard and at Strand Street.
‘BUMMERS’, DUDE To calculate grades, Heal the Bay used measurements collected by the Los Angeles County Health Department and the City of Los Angeles, both of which began within the past year monitoring the mouths of storm drains and other sources of urban runoff. These agencies were previously monitoring 25 to 50 feet from the source, which Gold said resulted in diluted levels of bacteria, which in turn did not give accurate readings of bacteria in areas where many people swim.
The new monitoring may explain why so many of Los Angeles County beaches were listed in Heal the Bay’s “Beach Bummers.’
Fourteen new monitoring sites in the Santa Monica Bay were added within the past year, which also may account for the higher number of beaches there being listed in the top 10 worst beaches, Gold said.
“This beach report card demonstrates that just because you go to the beach in a multi-million dollar neighborhood doesn’t guarantee it is safe for swimming,” Gold said. “Beach water quality knows no geographic or economic bounds.”
For a copy of the report, go to www.healthebay.org.
As Gold was giving his report, surfers were lined up just outside the breakwaters, 300 yards north of the Malibu Pier, an area where recent rains have caused harmful bacteria to rise to unsafe levels, forcing lifeguards to post signs warning against swimming in the area.
A.J. Mason and his friend Ben Aylesworth, both surfers, said they didn’t pay much attention to the warnings and were about to join the 20 or so surfers already in the water. And even if they did, there are some stretches of beach with such good waves that surfing is worth the risk.
“I’ve never gotten sick,” Mason said. “But I do think pollution is a major problem that is not getting nearly enough attention.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 25, 2006. Read the original PDF.