Heal the Bay's 2006 Summer Beach Report Card provides valuable and reliable information on the water quality of California beaches.

Heal the Bay released its 2006 End of Summer Beach Report Card today, assigning an A to F letter grade to more than 450 California beaches based on their levels of bacterial pollution from May 29, 2006 through September 30, 2006.

Excluding Long Beach and a number of beaches in the northern part of Los Angeles County, statewide water quality at California beaches this past summer was good, with 91% receiving A and B grades. In fact, most of the California coastline earned “A” grades, including San Diego, Ventura County, San Luis Obispo County, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Francisco, Sonoma and Humboldt counties.

Los Angeles County - The Worst

Once again, however, Los Angeles County had the worst beach water quality grades in the state with the biggest surprise of the summer the poor water quality found in Long Beach — only 3 of 25 (12%) monitoring stations received A or B grades. Last year, for the same time period, 21 of 23 (91%) of Long Beach monitoring stations received A or B grades. Long Beach normally scores fairly well during the summer months with poor water quality only after a major rain.

Avalon beaches (Catalina Island) also continue to suffer from poor water quality. None of the five monitoring locations received good grades (A or B) either this summer or last summer.

The Santa Monica Bay beaches fared slightly better than last summer with 49 (75%) of 65 monitoring locations received an A or B grades. In particular, Will Rogers State Beach had excellent water quality and both the Pulga and Santa Monica Canyon (at Chautauqua) drains improved from an F to an A. Most of the beaches with poor water quality were in the northern part of the Santa Monica Bay, with the exception of Santa Monica Pier (F), Dockweiler State Beach at Ballona Creek mouth (D), Manhattan Beach at 28th Street drain (D), and Redondo Municipal Pier (F).

In addition, Heal the Bay and Santa Monica released its Santa Monica Pier Bacterial Source Identification Study on poor water quality at the Pier beach. The five week study pinpointed the sources of high fecal bacteria densities at the beach and it provided recommendations for making the beach safe for swimming.

Proposition 84 — A Critical Statewide Measure

Los Angeles County's poor summer grades makes Proposition 84 a critical measure on the November 7, 2006 ballot. Endorsed by Heal the Bay, Prop 84's $5.4 billion will help solve some of California’s worst water quality problems and it’s the first proposition in the nation to provide dedicated funds—$540 million—to help maintain the health of our California's coastal waters.  $180 million specifically will go towards cleaning up coastal storm water and beach pollution, and $225 million to clean up the Santa Monica, San Diego, San Francisco and Monterey bays, watersheds, and major rivers that drain into those bays.

Other Notable Results

Beaches in Santa Barbara County saw a marked decline from last year. This summer, 6 of 20 (30%) water quality monitoring locations received fair-to-poor grades, including Jalama Beach (D), Refugio State Beach (F), Haskell’s Beach (C), Hope Ranch Beach (C), Arroyo Burro Beach (F), and East Beach at Mission Creek (C).

Orange County saw 90% of its monitored beaches receive an A grade, with surprisingly good water quality seen at multiple Doheny Beach locations this summer. Monarch Beach, also in Orange County, improved from a grade of F last summer to a B this year. Nearly all Newport Bay beaches received excellent grades for the summer.