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# Surfrider Beach gets $2 million for clean-up
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/surfrider-beach-gets-2-million-for-clean-up/
- Published: 2002-03-22T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:09:35.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Environment, Malibu, #archive-import

Surfers at a world class beach in Malibu may soon be swimming in cleaner water.

Surfrider Beach will get cleaned up thanks to a $2 million state grant awarded to the city of Malibu on Thursday, said Assembly member Fran Pavley. The grant will reduce bacterial contaminants flowing into Malibu Creek and into Surfrider Beach.

The State Water Resources Control Board approved the grant as part of the Safe Drinking Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Act of 2000.

Surfrider Beach, located at the outlet of Malibu Creek, is one of the three most polluted beaches along the Santa Monica Bay.

The other beaches that top the list is south of the Santa Monica Pier and Ballona Creek in Marina Del Ray, according to environmentalists. About 1.2 million people visit Surfrider Beach annually.

Three major storm drains that empty into Malibu Creek are significant sources of bacterial contamination, officials say. It is believed that the storm drains and the bedding material surrounding the drains act as conduits for bacterial contamination to the creek and ultimately, to the beach.

The city’s project would capture the storm drain runoff destined to the creek and disinfect it prior to its discharge into Malibu Creek and to Surfrider Beach.

Cleaning up area beaches is not only about protecting the environment, but also about economics.

“Clean, safe beaches are not only a must for our children and surfers but California’s economic health is directly linked to tourism,” Pavley said. “If our beaches are dirty and closed because of contamination, visitors will take their spending dollars elsewhere.”

Santa Monica has received about $1.25 million to clean up its beaches, particularly near the Pico-Kenter and pier storm drains. But Craig Perkins, the director of city’s environmental and public works department, said the project is short about $600,000\. The city is waiting for a few more grants to come through and the project will begin.

The grants will be used to install pollution prevention devices at the Centinela Drainage Basin to reduce polluted urban runoff by catching debris and trash before it hits the Pacific Ocean.

Urban runoff is the single greatest source of water pollution in Santa Monica Bay. In the past, urban runoff flowed untreated into the ocean. Now, cities like Santa Monica and Malibu are responding to the problem.

The Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility treats up to 500,000 gallons per day of urban runoff flowing through the Pico-Kenter and pier storm drains. The water is reused for landscape irrigation and indoor plumbing. The result is little or no urban runoff reaches the beach from the storm drains during dry weather.

But when it does rain, most surfers and swimmers know to stay out of the water for a few days because the bacteria from the runoff is dangerous to be exposed to.

Leigh Kivowitz, a Santa Monica resident and an avid surfer, said she is relieved to hear that Malibu’s most popular surfing beach will get cleaned up.

“I always try to go up north because I don’t trust it (south),” she said. “(Surfrider) doesn’t look bad... I don’t see things floating around, but it’s the place where you feel sick sometimes after you get out.”

> “(Surfrider) doesn’t look bad... I don’t see things floating around, but it’s the place where you feel sick sometimes after you get out.” — — LEIGH KIVOWITZ Surfer

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/032202-02_01.jpg)

Water enthusiasts at Surfrider Beach in Malibu can look forward to cleaner beaches thanks to a $2 million state grant. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 22, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)