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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 14 new sites this year as part of the Santa Monica Bay Beaches Bacteria TMDL for a total of 34 locations. 19 of these are monitored weekly, and the other 15 are monitored more frequently. 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. Most monitoring programs except Long Beach collect samples throughout the year at 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.
Both the City and County DHS programs’ move to sampling at the mouth of flowing storm drains and creeks, due to the Santa Monica Bay beach bacteria TMDL, has resulted in the county’s grades being well below the state average. Heal the Bay believes that sampling at the outfall (point zero) of these drains and creeks gives beachgoers a more accurate picture of water quality.
Both summer dry weather and year-round dry weather water quality were poor in Los Angeles County this past year. Only 69% of the locations received an A or B for the summer months, and year-round dry weather was very similar with 68% receiving As or Bs (Figures 29 and 30). There were some stretches of good water quality in western Malibu from Nicholas Beach to Trancas Canyon. The rest of Malibu and Topanga Beach
though north Santa Monica to the
Pico/Kenter storm drain suffered from
fair-to-poor water quality at almost all
monitoring sites for both the AB411 and
year-round dry weather time periods.
Along this stretch there were a handful
of locations with better water quality
including: Puerco Beach (B) Big Rock
Beach (A) and Pena Creek at Las Tunas
County Beach (A), the Bel Air Bay Club
fence (B) and Santa Monica Beach at
Montana Avenue (A) and Wilshire (A). Much better water quality was seen south of the Pico/Kenter
storm drain (C). In fact, mostly very good-to-excellent water quality was found from Strand Street in
Santa Monica all the way to south Long Beach, with the exception of Ballona Creek (F), the
Redondo Municipal Pier (F) and Cabrillo Beach harborside at the lifeguard tower (F).
Of the approximately 30 locations in the northern part of Santa Monica Bay (from Leo Carrillo downcoast to Chautauqua Blvd.), about 75% had significant water quality problems sometime during the year. These beaches make up roughly one third of the 91 year-round LA County monitoring locations, but account for almost 70% of the County’s poor dry weather water quality. For example, Paradise Cove received F grades for all three time periods (dry, summer dry and wet). Unfortunately, so did Escondido Beach at Escondido Creek, Dan Blocker County Beach at Solstice Canyon, Puerco Beach at the Marie Canyon drain, Surfrider at the breach, Topanga, Castle Rock Beach, and Will Rogers State Beach at both Pulga Canyon and Santa Monica Canyon. Escondido Creek just east of Escondido State Beach, had the worst water quality in the state for both the AB411 and year-round dry weather time periods with 95% of samples exceeding state bacterial standards.
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| Topanga State Beach. Photo: Heal the Bay. |
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| Redondo Municipal Pier. Photo: Heal the Bay. |
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| Long Beach City Beach at 10th Place. Photo: Heal the Bay. |
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Both Malibu Point at the colony fence and the Malibu Pier slipped from A grades last year to Cs during the AB411 time period. Big Rock Beach saw a dip in year-round dry weather water quality this year and received a C grade after earning As for the two previous years. Topanga State Beach has experienced a dramatic drop in water quality over the past couple of years and earned Fs for all three time periods this year.
Water quality at the Redondo Municipal Pier was also poor for all three time periods this past year. While the pier’s wet weather grade improved slightly from the torrential rains and an F grade in 2004–2005 to a D this year, dry weather and AB411 time period water quality slipped to F grades from good and fair marks the previous year (all previous year’s grades were rerun with our new methodology).
Cabrillo Beach harborside at the lifeguard tower has the dubious distinction of having earned F grades for all time periods over the last 3 years. All monitoring locations at Avalon Beach on Catalina Island received F grades for the AB411 time period this past year. As usual, these 5 beaches were not monitored yearround.
Most Long Beach monitoring locations had very good water quality during the AB411 time period this year, but for the past two years, every monitoring location has received an F grade during wet weather. This demonstrates the enormous influence of the Los Angles River and other drains on water quality during rainfall events.
Overall, wet weather water quality in Los Angeles County improved from last year’s extremely wet year. During wet weather, 66% of the 91 monitored locations received a fair-to-poor water quality grade, with 53% of the beaches receiving an F grade. Leo Carrillo to Zuma Beach in Malibu and Malaga Cove to Cabrillo Beach on the oceanside were the only major stretches of beach in Los Angeles County to exhibit good water quality during wet weather this year.
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 compared to the past two-year average. The overall 2005-2006 dry weather water quality for Santa Monica Bay beaches was well below the previous average, with only 68% of the locations receiving an A or B as compared the two-year average of 91% (Figure 31 and 32). Only 5 of the brand new TMDL monitoring locations (36%) received higher than a C grade during year-round dry weather. 8 of the 14 (57%) brand new locations received F grades for the AB411 time period. Also, most monitoring locations at the outlet of storm drains or creeks were moved to directly at the confluence of the outlet flow and the wave wash this past year. This dip in the grades shows the dramatic difference in water quality between the previous
sampling locations (approximately 25 yards away from
the outlet) and the new sites that are directly influenced
by watershed and urban runoff flows.
Wet weather water quality, despite the new sampling
locations being moved to the mouth of storm drains and
creeks, was better this year than during the extremely wet
2004–2005 winter season, but was moderately worse than the past two-year average (Figure 33).
Beach Cleanup Projects Coming Soon
Although the news for many Los Angeles county
beaches was disturbing, there is help on the way. The
City of Los Angeles is shifting the operation of their
runoff diversions to include the seven months from
April 1st to October 31st, starting this summer. The
three major ongoing projects include upgrades of
runoff diversions at Will Rogers at Chautauqua and
Temescal Canyon by the end of the summer of 2006,
and major beach configuration, water circulation, and
source abatement efforts at Cabrillo Beach to be completed
by 2007. The Los Angeles County Department of
Public Works is partnering on the Will Rogers at
Chautauqua project.
The County of Los Angeles Department of Public
Works has a number of projects designed to improve
shoreline water quality in Santa Monica Bay. The County
is proposing a multi-stage treatment BMP with ultraviolet
disinfection at Marie Canyon to be completed by
February 2007. Also, the County has already constructed
a state of the art infiltration pit at Redondo Beach.
In Malibu, four projects are scheduled for completion
that should help improve beach water quality conditions.
All of these projects are located at F beaches.
Thanks to the State Water Board Clean Beach Initiative
and the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, the long awaited Malibu Civic Center
runoff treatment facility is scheduled
for completion and operation by the
fall of 2006. Malibu purchased the
Chili Cookoff site in the Malibu Civic
Center area (now called Legacy Park)
and is planning to build a treatment
wetland project by 2010 to 2012. The
runoff treatment facility at Paradise
Cove will be enlarged to handle all of
the flow from Ramirez Canyon by
some time in 2007. This Clean Beach
Initiative project is a unique partnership between Malibu, the Santa Monica Baykeeper and the
land owner. 4) In addition, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works is scheduled to
complete a runoff treatment facility at Marie Canyon at Puerco Beach by 2007.
Sewage
Spill Summary
There were 15 sewage spills in LA County reported to Heal the Bay this past year. The biggest
spill was approximately 2 million gallons of raw sewage released when the sewage pumping plant
at 27th and the Strand in Manhattan Beach stopped working on 1/15/06. A “triple failure” of a failed alarm system, shorted electrical panel and a dysfunctional backup power generator led to the pumping plant failure which took over 12 hours to repair. As a result, sewage backed into homes, was released through manhole covers, into flood control channels, and directly into the ocean. Beaches from Dockweiler at the Hyperion Treatment Plant downcoast to Malaga Cove were closed for 5 days, although the vast majority of the sewage was confined to the beach. On February 1st, 21st Street in Manhattan Beach was closed again for an additional 42 days due to extremely high bacteria counts lingering in the sand.
There were 3 other major spills (=10,000 gallons) reported to Heal the Bay that accounted for 72% of the remaining spill volume for 2005–2006. One of the largest occurred on Sunday March 19th, 2006 when 20,000 gallons of sewage entered Centinela Creek/Ballona Creek. Remarkably, no beaches were closed after this spill. The public was not notified of this spill for 3 days. Except for the Manhattan Beach spill, no sewage spills in LA County led to beach closures.
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. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services must evolve from utilizing its ‘wait-and-see’ approach for protecting the public’s health to the more precautionary approach adopted by Orange and
San Diego Counties. It has been estimated that over 450
spills occur each year in the City of Los Angeles*, which
doesn’t include the LA County Sanitation District’s service area, but amazingly, this has resulted in an average of only 2 beach closures per year by LA County Department of Health Services. [*estimate from US Department of Justice press release — 8/6/04]
Additionally, as the major Ballona Creek spill in March demonstrated, a meeting between public agencies involved with wastewater operations, public health protection, and other stakeholders must take place immediately to revisit sewage spill response 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. The County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County’s development of a sewage spill action response plan and a standard public notification protocol, as required in the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant permit (NPDES Permit No. CA0053813, Cl-1758), will address the currently inadequate public notification procedures. The City of Los Angeles needs to take a leadership role in this process.
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