Heal the Bay recently released the first Southern California Summer Beach Report Card where Malibu Beaches were shown to be tainted by fecal bacteria.
Although Malibu beaches are not alone in the findings of the study, the results may be more proof on the city’s burden to do something about the sewer system battle.
City officials have gone back and fourth about who is responsible for the local water conditions.
Once again, the many suspects (from natural canyon runoff to wastewater dumping by some local businesses) of bacteria-filled water are examined.
Septic tanks are probably the most blamed of all, with water officials naming them as one of the largest causes in the ‘too unhealthy to swim in’ waters.
The lack of capturing dry-weather urban runoff has been an issue since the Northridge earthquake damaged 50-year-old sewer pipes that run underneath Pacific Coast Highway into Santa Monica.
Pepperdine University has also been fingered in the dirty water game of hot potato for repeated “emergency dumping” in the past. Despite the finger pointing and adverse denial locally, it may be that Malibu beaches are no different from other California beaches.
The Heal the Bay report had many findings as follows: Overall water quality of area beaches this summer was good.
However, water quality at Los Angeles beaches was significantly poorer than last year. Of the 85 water quality monitoring locations, 58 (68.2 percent) received very good-to-excellent water quality marks (48 ‘A’ and 10 ‘B’ grades).
This was not good news for beachgoers in L.A. County given that more than 89 percent of the beaches received high marks last summer, according to Heal the Bay reports.
There were 27 locations (31.8 percent) that received fair-to-poor water quality marks (10 ‘C,’ eight ‘D’ and nine ‘F’ grades).
The report says a number of beach locations in Los Angeles County were often unsafe for swimming, including Surfrider Beach and Big Rock in Malibu and Will Rogers Beach at Santa Monica.
Of the 373 water monitoring locations throughout Southern California, 295 locations (79 percent) received very good-to-excellent water quality marks (257 had an ‘A’ grade and 38 with ‘B’ grade).
There were 78 locations (21 percent) that received fair-to-poor water quality marks (34 had a grade of ‘C,’ 17 with a ‘D’ grade and 27 with a grade of ‘F’).