You can take it with a grain of sand the next time you hear our beaches are being awarded a less than satisfactory grade. It seems that the means by which our beaches are graded for water quality may be worthless and outmoded. No one doubts that raw sewage spills, which usually emanate from large urban sewer systems, are a human risk. However, new studies show that high bacteria levels in Malibu are from natural conditions such as deer, coyote, birds etc.
With this new understanding of the sources of bacteria, the Baykeepers lawsuits and the notice of violations from the Regional Water Quality Board against Malibu and Malibu landowners become a waste of everyone’s time and money. In the meantime, Malibu is forced to pay for old and outdated monitoring methods, and the public may be misled by beach grades based upon sampling that may be a worthless indicator of human health risk.Â
Ken Kearsley