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 23 locations on a weekly basis. All monitoring programs collect samples throughout the year 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.

Manhattan Beach Pier. Photo: Heal the Bay

Whereas summer dry weather water quality conditions were good, with 83% of the locations receiving an A or B, year-round dry weather was only fair with 71% (Figures 29 and 30). Of the 77 locations monitored year-round, 54 (71%) received good-to-excellent water quality marks, with some stretches of beach that had great water quality: from Leo Carrillo to Westward Beach, from Ashland Avenue to Venice Beach at Topsail Street, from Dockweiler Beach at Imperial Highway to Manhattan State Beach at 40th street, from Redondo State Beach at Topaz Street to Cabrillo Beach on the ocean side, and in Long Beach from Prospect Avenue to 72nd Place.

Surfrider Beach in Malibu takes a breather from our statewide top 10 "Beach Bummer" list this year by earning a C grade during the AB411 time period, although it still received an F for year-round dry weather. Topanga Canyon saw marked improvement during the AB411 time period last year with an A grade, up from a C the previous year. The technical problems affecting the Pico/Kenter diversion in the summer of 2003 seem to have been overcome. Last year's grade of C at Pico/Kenter jumped all the way back to an A this year. Also, in Long Beach from Prospect Avenue to 72nd Place, the poor water quality from 2003- 2004 has rebounded and scored some of the best grades in the county this year.

Long Beach City Beach at Molino Avenue. Photo: Heal the Bay

There were a few notable beaches that have showed substantial degradation since our 2003-2004 annual report. Paradise Cove has become notorious for poor water quality in Malibu this past year as its grades slipped from an A to a D during the later months of the summer dry weather time period. Santa Monica Beach at Montana plummeted from a 2003-2004 summer dry weather grade of A to F this year with multiple indicator high threshold exceedances in June 2004. Redondo Municipal Pier's grade also fell substantially from a C in our last report, to an F for the summer dry weather time period. The City of Avalon's water quality improvement after slip lining their major sewer trunk lines, now unfortunately appears to be an aberration, as 3 of the 5 Avalon Beach locations received poor grades again this year.

Are the diversions working? The Herondo drain low flow dry weather diversion appears to be working despite its C grade. Last summer there were two horrendous days (7/6/04 and 10/25/04) where all bacterial indicators were exceeded and severely impacted the grade. 90% (26) of the samples collected during the summer dry weather months were clean. The Santa Monica Canyon diversion seems to be faring quite well, and has improved upon its 2003-2004 grade of B to score its first full-fledged A this year during the summer dry weather time-period. When one considers the year-round dry weather grade for Santa Monica Canyon is an F, beachgoers are definitely benefiting from improved water quality during the summer months with the diversion in place. Other locations with diversions in place also fared well during the summer dry weather time-period, like Santa Monica Beach at Ashland Ave., Santa Monica Beach at Pico/Kenter, Venice Beach at Brooks Ave., Venice Beach at Windward Circle, and Dockweiler State Beach at Imperial Hwy, just to name a few.

Wet weather water quality in Los Angeles County was much like nearly every other county in California - very poor due to the record rainfall (Table 4). During wet weather, 94% of the 77 monitored locations received a fair-to-poor water quality grade, with 90% of the beaches receiving an F grade. Long Point to Portuguese Bend Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes was the only stretch of beach in Los Angeles County to exhibit good water quality during wet weather. Cabrillo Beach on the oceanside was the only other single beach in the county to get a B during wet weather. The unique conditions of these areas (small watershed area and a low amount of impervious area) allow for good water quality conditions.

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 to determine how this year's water quality results fared compared to the five-year average. The overall 2004-2005 dry weather water quality for Santa Monica Bay beaches was below average, with only 71% of the locations receiving an A or B as compared the five-year average of 81% (Figure 32). However, summer dry weather (AB411) water quality was consistent with the three-year average (Figure 31). Looking at these two figures together, the impression one should get is: 1) summer dry weather water quality is improving over time, and 2) agencies are struggling with wet weather conditions impacting year-round dry weather flow rates at many storm drain outlets.

Wet weather water quality trends (Figure 33) look fairly dismal. This year's exceedingly heavy rainfall magnifies a continuing problem in Los Angeles, the lack of significant progress on wet weather water quality and lack of appropriate funding to clean up wet weather water quality. In the nearfuture, wet weather water quality, it appears, will only improve with less rain.

Sewage Spill Summary
There were 20 sewage spills in LA County reported to Heal the Bay this past year. Approximately 21/2 million gallons of sewage resulted in 28 beach closures. The massive amounts of rain in early January caused the largest of these spills. Overloaded sewer systems released an estimated 2.4 million gallons of raw sewage into the LA River. As a result, 23 beaches in Long Beach were closed for 9 days.

While this year's rains may have caused a number of upstream sewage spills to force the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to close some downstream beaches, Heal the Bay will reiterate the same statement made in our 14th Annual Beach Report Card because nothing has changed. The lack of implementation of the County's own Beach Closure and Public Notification Protocol over the past few years calls into question the County's awareness and implementation of the protocol, and the public's right-to-know regarding local water quality conditions. It appears that after a sewage spill, the response of "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 need to be addressed by Los Angeles County. First, as a public health protection measure, a more precautionary approach must be adopted when a spill has reached a water body and has the potential to impact the beach. This means that the County must follow its existing Beach Closure and Public Notification Protocol and State Health Standards as required under AB411. Secondly, a meeting between public agencies involved with wastewater operations, public health protection, and other stakeholders must take place immediately to revisit sewage spill action plans and public notification protocols, so that the two public notification gaps (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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