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There
are four agencies within the County of Los Angeles that
contribute monitoring information to Heal the Bay's
Beach Report Card. The City of Los Angeles' Environmental
Monitoring Division at the Hyperion Sewage Treatment
Plant monitors 20 locations on a daily basis. The Los
Angeles County Department of Health Services monitors
31 locations on a weekly basis. The Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts monitor eight locations, six of
which are monitored daily and two weekly. And finally,
the City of Long Beach, Environmental Health Division,
monitors approximately 20 locations on a weekly basis.
All monitoring programs collect samples throughout the
year and anywhere from 25 to 50 yards north or south
of the mouth of a storm drain or creek.
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| Abalone
Cove, Palos Verdes Peninsula |
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Dry
weather water quality at most Los Angeles County beaches
was excellent. Of the 77 locations monitored for water
quality, 70 (91%) received very-good-to-excellent water
quality marks (see Table 21 and Table 22). There were
stretches of beaches that had great water quality for
beachgoers, such as from Leo Carrillo beach to Westward
Beach; Dockweiler Beach, south of Ballona Creek to Hermosa
Beach Pier; Redondo Beach at Topaz Street to Cabrillo
Beach on the ocean side; Long Beach City Beach at Coronado
Avenue to Long Beach City Beach at 72nd Place (except
Granada Avenue); and surprisingly, all swimming locations
within Alamitos Bay.
Those
locations with dry weather diversions, such as Santa
Monica Beach at both the Pico/Kenter and Ashland storm
drains, and Venice City Beach at Brooks Avenue, all
received A grades during the summer season (April through
October).
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| Herondo
Street Storm Drain, Hermosa Beach |
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There
were only seven locations (10%) that received a grade
of C or lower. These beaches tend to be problem beaches
year after year, and include: Surfrider Beach in Malibu,
Will Rogers Beach at Santa Monica Canyon, Santa Monica
Pier, Herondo Street stormdrain, Redondo Beach Pier,
Cabrillo Beach on the harbor side at the lifeguard tower,
and Long Beach City Beach at 3rd Street. Inexplicably,
the Herondo Street storm drain received a grade of C
during dry weather even with a diversion in place.
Surfrider
Beach's highly varied dry weather water quality
this
year may be attributed to discharges from the Tapia
Sewage Treatment Plant. The renowned beach, located
at the outlet of Malibu Creek and Lagoon, had excellent
water quality during the AB 411 monitoring period (from April to October). The naturally forming
sand-bar was rarely breached (broke open), due in part
to the 2001-2002 drought and the successful prohibition
of discharge from the Tapia Sewage Treatment Plant
during this time-period. This meant that highly
polluted water
from Malibu Lagoon never impacted the surfzone, thereby
creating excellent water quality conditions.
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| Malibu
Lagoon at Surfrider Beach, Malibu |
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Yet
Surfrider's year round dry weather grade was an F, which
means that the vast majority of the water quality exceedances
took place during dry weather conditions from November
through March. This happens to coincide with the rainy
season and Tapia's allowable discharge period, which
is from November 16 through April 14. The Lagoon nearly
always flows to the beach during this time-period. Surfrider
Beach was the only Los Angeles County location to experience
such a dramatic change in water quality during dry weather.
Wet
weather water quality in Los Angeles County was much
like every other county in California - very poor. During
wet weather, 76% of the 54 monitored locations received
a fair-to-poor water quality grade, with 56% of beaches
receiving an F grade. This year's wet weather water
quality was much poorer than last year, when only 43%
of beaches received F grades. Although great strides
are being made to clean-up dry weather water quality,
surfers and other beachgoers who spend time in the ocean
during the winter months should lament the lack of improvements
in wet weather water quality.
General
Water Quality Trends for Santa Monica Bay
Heal the Bay analyzed trends for both dry and wet weather
water quality for Los Angeles County beaches (excluding
Long Beach and Catalina because of lack of data-these
two monitoring programs were either inadequate or nonexistent
prior to 1999) to determine how this year's water quality
fared compared to the six-year average. Based on Table
23, the overall picture of dry weather water quality
for Santa Monica Bay beaches can be summed up as an
above-average year when looking at percentages. While
public agencies continue to make considerable improvements
in dry weather water quality, wet weather water quality
continues to be poor. Water quality improvements at
beaches during wet weather stems more from the lack
of rainfall than the implementation of pollution abatement
measures.
Clean
Beach Initiative Summary
Funded by $11.5 million as part of the CBI program,
there are 14 projects to reduce bacterial pollution
at local beaches in Los Angeles County. These projects
include three tidal circulation studies (Mothers' Beach,
Cabrillo Beach, and Avalon Beach), a package plant in
Malibu, and two pier projects (Santa Monica Pier and
Redondo Pier) focusing on source identification and
abatement issues. In addition to the tidal circulation
studies for both Mothers' Beach (a County of Los Angeles
project) and Cabrillo Beach (a City of Los Angeles project),
there will be additional minor beach improvement projects
at both beaches.
In
addition to the aforementioned projects, there are four
dry-weather low flow diversions scheduled to begin this
swimming season. Water quality should dramatically improve
at beaches near Temescal Canyon, Santa Monica Canyon,
Venice City Beach at Windward Ave., Imperial Beach Boulevard
storm drain, and Manhattan Beach at 27th.
A
CBI success story has been Avalon Beach on Catalina
Island. When the County of Los Angeles, Department
of
Health Services began monitoring Avalon Beach in 1999
on a routine basis as part of AB-411, water quality
often exceeded state standards for beach bathing
water.
Many assumed that the poor water quality found at Avalon
was the result of the resident bird population. However,
a source-identification study completed by researchers
at USC and UC Irvine found otherwise. The data collected
in the study pointed to leaky sewer lines, which
ran
parallel to the public beach. The City of Avalon moved
quickly to remediate the problem. The city installed
slip line sewer covers (placing new sewer lines within
existing lines), to protect against underground
wastewater from impacting nearby swimming beaches.
This seems
to
have alleviated the water quality problem at Avalon
Beach, with four of the five monitoring locations
receiving
an A or B grade.
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were 222 sewage spills throughout the region this
past year (April 2002 to March 2003) discharging a total
volume of 101,763 gallons of sewage into local waterbodies.
Of the 222 sewage spills, three spills were in the major
category (> 10,000 gallons) and accounted for 62% of
the total volume spilled. Surprisingly, none of the
222 sewage spills actually led to beach closures. However,
there were three separate incidents this past year that
call into question the County's Beach Closure and Public
Notification Protocol, the legitimacy of the zero closures,
and the public's right-to-know regarding local water
quality conditions. The three spills (August 1, 2002,
November 18, 2002, and March 19, 2003) occurred in the
Pacific Palisades, discharging an average of 745 gallons
of sewage to Will Rogers State Beach. However, Will
Rogers Beach was not closed in response to these spills.
As a public health protection measure, most southern
California counties will close beaches for three days-following
the cessation of a sewage spill-when a spill has reached
a waterbody and has the potential to impact the beach,
despite sampling results. State law requires beach closures
and sign postings in the event sewage is discharged
to the beach. Monitoring results are not required for
this mandatory closure decision.
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