The annual Heal the Bay Beach Report Card released last week also puts Paradise Cove on county’s top most polluted beach list; Surfrider Beach makes county list as well.
and Surfrider By Vicki Godal/Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu’s Paradise Cove Beach and Surfrider Beach are listed among the top most polluted beaches in Los Angeles County, according to the annual Heal the Bay Beach Report Card released last week, and Paradise Cove was also listed as one of California’s top 10 Beach Bummers for having the poorest dry weather water quality during the year.
“The big surprise was Paradise Cove,” Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, said. “This is the first time ever that they have even been on the list. That has just never, ever, ever happened.”
Although Surfrider is taking a breather from being on the state’s Beach Bummer list for having a C grade during the dry weather-grading period, from April 1 through October 31 of each year, it has received a year-round dry weather F grade.
Heal the Bay released its 2004-2005 annual Beach Report Card at a Santa Monica press conference on May 25. The Beach Report Card grades beaches with an A (excellent) to an F (fail) letter grade based on a beach’s level of bacterial pollution. Both daily and weekly samples are gathered over the course of a year at 450 California beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border in order to make the grade.
A poor beach report card grade of D or F means that visitors to these beaches risk contracting illnesses like stomach flu, ear infections, upper respiratory infections and skin rashes. Beaches with grades A, B or C are cleaner, safer beaches for swimming.
“The Beach Report Card helps families understand which beaches they can visit without fear of getting sick,” Shelley Luce, director of Environmental Science and Policy for Heal the Bay, said.
Heal the Bay looks at water quality trends by beach type. Open ocean beach water quality was significantly better than the water quality of those beaches impacted by storm drains or located within enclosed bays or harbors. During wet weather, beach water quality plummets due to large amounts of rainwater flushing polluted street water runoff through the storm drain systems out into the ocean.
“The record rainfall had a predictable impact on coastal water quality. This was the worst wet weather water quality on record,” Gold said. “Clearly, California’s efforts to reduce storm water runoff pollution (to protect public health) have been woefully inadequate.”
Seventy six percent of California beaches monitored receive a grade of F during this year’s wet weather while 74 percent received a grade A during last summer’s dry weather.
As for the failing water quality grade at Paradise Cove, Gold said: “The restaurant [Paradise Cove Beach Café] on the beach at Paradise Cove tested the water and then built a water treatment facility there on their own dime. They weren’t even required to do it. The problem is the facility size. It’s undersized for everything coming out of that canyon.”
Gold said the most likely potential source of the problem at Paradise Cove is the mobile home park there.
Although, he added, “No one has done a source identification test, so we don’t know that for certain. However, the mobile home park has a settlement agreement with Los Angeles County to have a water treatment plant built by August 2005. We [Heal the Bay] just had a meeting with the City of Malibu and the Santa Monica Baykeepers to get Los Angeles County on board to get the treatment plant built as opposed to spending money on the source identification.”
Gold explained that source identification testing is a very expensive process of determining where bacterial-i.e., fecal-matter, is originated. The average source identification cost is generally $50,000 to $100,000. “Fecal bacteria indicators just tell you its source,” Gold said. “We know its there, it’s more important to just get the plant built.”
A scientist with a doctorate from UCLA in environmental science, Gold co-authored the “Santa Monica Bay Epidemiology Study of Swimmers and Storm Water Runoff” for the City of Los Angeles in 1995. The study analyzed Santa Monica Bay water for bacteria that indicated pollution from numerous sources, including fecal waste. Now local health agencies routinely monitor California beaches and analyze beach water samples for bacteria. By assessing fecal bacteria levels and making this information available to the public, the Beach Report Card is designed to protect the public health of the 100 million people who visit California’s beaches.
According to the 2004-2005 Beach Report Card, the majority of Southern California’s beaches are in great condition for swimming and surfing this summer (except Surfrider Beach and Paradise Cove).
Water quality in dry weather continues to be good with approximately 82 percent of the beaches monitored statewide receiving a year-round dry weather grade of A or B.
For weekly beach updates to the 2004-2005 Beach Report Card, visit www.healthebay.org