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There
are four agencies within the County of Los Angeles
that contributed monitoring information to Heal
the Bay's Beach Report Card. The City of Los Angeles' Environmental Monitoring
Division at the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant monitored 20 locations on a daily
basis. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services monitored 31 locations
on a weekly basis. The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts monitored eight
locations, six of which are monitored daily and two weekly. And finally, the
City of Long Beach, Environmental Health Division, monitored approximately 23
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.
For additional water quality information visit the Los
Angeles
County Department of Health Services or the City
of Long Beach websites.
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| Manhattan
Beach Pier. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Dry
weather water quality at most Los Angeles County
beaches was good. Of the 77 locations monitored,
55 (71%) received good-to-excellent water quality marks
(see Table 23 and Table 24). There were stretches
of beaches
that had great water quality for beachgoers, beaches from
Leo Carrillo to Westward Beach; Dockweiler Beach, at
Culver Blvd. to the Herondo Street storm drain (except
27th St. in Manhattan Beach); and Redondo Beach at
Avenue I to Cabrillo Beach on the ocean side. After dipping
to a C grade for summer 2002, it appears that the
Herondo drain diversion was effective last summer, with
that beach receiving a grade of A.
Two
of the 3 Santa Monica beaches with dry weather diversions
that received A grades during the summer of
2002 (April through October), saw a dip in water quality
last summer. The beach at the Ashland Avenue storm drain
received an A grade again, but Venice City Beach at Brooks
Avenue slipped to a B, and the most marked decline in
water quality was seen at Pico/Kenter which dropped to a
C. The Pico/Kenter diversion experienced pump failures
last summer, and miscommunication between the City of
Santa Monica and L.A. County led to runoff flows being
discharged to the beach. This spring dry weather flow from
the storm drain was also discharged to the beach. Unlike
other low-flow dry weather diversion projects at popular
California beaches that only operate for seven months, the runoff from Pico/Kenter
is diverted to a treatment plant (the Santa Monica
Urban
Runoff Recycling Facility) on a year-round
basis. Los Angeles County has already
reconfigured the beach and replaced the
overflow pipe as a short term solution to
protect the beach water quality at Pico for
this summer. Heal the Bay is actively working
with the interested stakeholders to find
a solution to this ongoing problem. Also, the City of Los Angeles was able to
complete the Santa Monica Canyon diversion at Will
Rogers Beach, benefiting beachgoers this past summer,
and it made a substantial difference in water quality.
In 2002-2003, Santa Monica Canyon received a grade of D from April to October;
however, this year
water quality improved to a grade of B. Always feel free to report to Heal the
Bay any storm drain flow to area beaches seen during
the summer months.
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| Long
Beach City Beach at Molino Avenue. Photo: Heal
the Bay |
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This
year, L.A. County's worst dry weather beaches again
included the perennial problem beaches at Malibu
Surfrider Beach and Malibu Point, Redondo Municipal
Pier, and Cabrillo Beach harborside at the lifeguard
tower. Other poor dry weather grades were seen in
Long Beach at Molino Avenue and at 54th Place. Long
Beach beaches from 3rd Place all the way to 72nd
Place saw dramatic drops in their grades this past
year. Water quality in Long Beach was generally excellent
up to mid-August, but in late August and September
water quality was very poor. The magnitude of the
water quality exceedances across multiple bacterial
indicators for that 4-6 week time period resulted
in Long Beach grades dropping 1-2 grade levels for
overall dry weather from the previous year. If you
plan on swimming in Long Beach this summer, we encourage
you to check our weekly beach report card at www.healthebay.org
and to pay special attention to late summer water
quality.
Surfrider
Beach's water quality was very poor again this past
year. The renowned beach, located at the outlet of
Malibu Creek and Lagoon, received both a dry weather
and AB411 time-period grade of F. This year, Surfrider
Beach was able to wrestle away the title of Los Angeles
County's most polluted beach from Cabrillo Beach,
harborside. Please be aware that if the Malibu Lagoon
sand-bar is breached, water contact at Surfrider
Beach is likely to cause illness, and should be avoided.
Another
of last year's improved beaches saw a return of poor
water quality. After the City of Avalon slip lined
their sewers to protect against underground wastewater
impacting Avalon Beach, the Avalon beaches saw marked
improvement in dry weather water quality for 2002-2003.
Unfortunately, this past year, water quality dropped
dramatically at these locations. Three of the 5 Avalon
Beach monitoring locations received fair-to-poor
water quality grades this past year. The City needs
to increase the capacity of their runoff diversions,
enhance their slip line efforts, and ensure that
the Green Pleasure Pier is not contributing high
loads of fecal bacteria along the beach shoreline
areas.
Wet
weather water quality in Los Angeles County was much
like nearly every other county in
California-poor. During wet weather, 59% of the 54 monitored locations received
a fair-to-poor
water quality grade, with 37% of beaches receiving an F grade.
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 seven-year
average. The overall 2003-2004 dry weather water quality
for Santa Monica Bay beaches was just slightly above
average (see Tables 25 and 26). While public agencies
continue to work to improve dry weather water quality,
overall wet weather water quality continues to be poor.
Water quality improvements at beaches during wet weather
stem more from differences in rainfall than actual
pollution abatement measures.
A
brief look at the April through October water quality
trend
for Los
Angeles County, including Long Beach and Avalon follows (see Figure D). Heal
the Bay hopes to extend this analysis every year, to
help
get an overall look at Los Angeles County's summer water quality. Last summer,
the number of poor-to-failing grades was right in line with the 4-year average.
A significantly higher number of C grades and a relatively lower amount of A
grades most likely stems from the influence of Long
Beach's overall grades dropping significantly.
Clean
Beach Initiative Summary
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| Mothers'
Beach, Marina del Rey. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Los
Angeles County received $11.5 million in funding
as part of the CBI program.
There are 14 projects to reduce bacterial
pollution at local beaches.
The
City of Malibu was awarded $2.5 million to clean
up
world-famous Surfrider Beach, and will
focus on treating dry weather runoff by
building a package treatment plant similar
to the successful Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (SMURRF).
The Malibu facility, which would be a smaller version
of SMURRF, will filter and disinfect runoff from
three
separate drains that dump into Malibu Creek and
Malibu
Lagoon. In addition, the City of Malibu is working on a septic system assessment
project, which will
inventory and look at the impact of the Civic Center's on-site wastewater treatment
systems on local
creeks and lagoons.
Meanwhile,
a $1.75 million project at Mothers' Beach (to
be completed in 2005) in Marina del Rey focuses on water circulation and how
it impacts bacteria densities on the beach. To help improve water quality at
this notoriously polluted beach, Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors Department
(the entity responsible for the marina) will first identify any troublesome point
sources of pollution. Researchers have begun the study phase of the Mothers' Beach
project, but the actual implementation of a circulation improvement and source
abatement plan is up to a year away.
The
City of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island had circulation
problems similar to those at Mothers' Beach, and a sanitary survey
turned up a leaky sewer line as the source of much of the bacteria on the beaches.
Avalon installed a "slip liner," which is a plastic pipe that slides inside existing
sewage lines to help stop leaks. The slip liner worked for about a year, but
persistent bacteria problems have once again caused poor water quality.
The
City of Los Angeles was granted $1,250,000 in CBI
funds to clean up Cabrillo Beach,
and the impetus is on the Port of Los Angeles to implement solutions.
Goals for Cabrillo are similar to those for Mothers' Beach: improve water quality by identifying
previously overlooked sources of contamination and find ways to increase water
circulation. They've completed source identification studies, and found that
an adjacent (near the bath house) sewer line and subsurface storm drain were
contributing to water quality problems at the beach. The sewer will be replaced
and a storm drain diversion will be installed soon.
The
City of Long Beach was awarded $800,000 to tackle
problems in Colorado Lagoon and in the Los Angeles
River. Long Beach planned to divert dry weather runoff from Colorado
Lagoon and
also to capture trash from the L.A. River. Unfortunately, there will
be no diversion at Colorado Lagoon, and the City
failed to provide a project that met State Water
Resources Control Board approval and thus didn't get CBI funds.
Many
of the local Clean Beach Initiative projects are
dry weather runoff diversions in
the City
of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Most of the diversion projects
are on schedule, and some were actually completed
in the summer of 2003 (including
Venice at Windward, Santa Monica Canyon, Temescal Canyon, Imperial
Highway, and 8th Street).
The
City of Los Angeles was granted about $1 million
to divert urban runoff during dry weather
at the chronically polluted Will
Rogers State Beach at Santa Monica Canyon (a
beach that sees almost three million visitors a year) to the
Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant. The City is also
planning
this type of diversion for Will
Rogers Beach at Marquez and the County is working on
a diversion at Pulga Canyon in Pacific Palisades.
Los
Angeles County is also working on several other projects,
some of
which include improvements to the
Santa Monica Beach storm drain at Ashland
Avenue, diversion projects at Venice Beach at Rose, Redondo
Beach
at Avenue I, (all of these should be completed
by December 2004) and another diversion
project
at Dockweiler State Beach at the
Westchester parkway (which should be operational by this summer).
All
in all, the City is currently operating 14 diversions.
Seven more are being designed, and three more are
currently in the planning stages. The County has
nine total diversions being funded by the
Clean Beach Initiative, the majority of which will be completed by December
2004. There are six additional diversions that might
be funded by the Clean Beach Initiative,
and one (Venice Beach at
Brooks) that was funded by Proposition A, for a total of 16 diversions run
by L.A. County and 30 total
diversions in the region.
Sewage
Spill Summary
Over the past two years (April 2002 through March
2004), the County has closed beaches only twice due
to sewage spills. Over this same time period, there
have been more than 275 reported sewage
spills of various volumes throughout the region discharging more than 395,550
gallons of partially treated or raw sewage. Of the
over 275 reported sewage spills, at least six spills
were in the major category
(> 10,000 gallons) and accounted for 85% of the total volume spilled, none of
which led to any beach closures. Four spills, three occurring in the Pacific
Palisades (August 1, 2002, November 18, 2002, and March 19, 2003) impacting Will
Rogers State Beach, and one at Dockweiler Beach at the Hyperion one-mile outfall
(March 3 and March 4, 2004), call into question the County's implementation of
their Beach Closure and Public Notification Protocol, and the public's right-to-know
regarding
local water quality conditions. It appears that the term "the Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services was notified and determined that the overflow did
not necessitate any beach closures," means the County is utilizing a wait-and-see
approach to protecting the public's health.
There
are two issues that must be addressed by the County.
First, as a public health protection measure, a more
precautionary approach must be adopted when a spill has reached a waterbody
and
has the potential to impact the beach, which means that the County must follow
its existing Beach Closure and Public Notification Protocol and State Health
Standards as required under AB411; and secondly, a meeting between public agencies
involved with wastewater operations, and stakeholders
must take place
immediately to revisit sewage spill action plans and public
notification protocols, so that the two public notification
gaps (namely timely reporting of sewage spills to the public
health departments and appropriate notification measures
of sewage spills by the county health department to
beachgoers) can be resolved.
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