Sanity was restored last week to the California State Fish and Game Commission’s efforts to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern California. The Schwarzenegger administration has long made it a priority to meet the requirements of the Marine Life Protection Act, which calls for establishing a statewide network on MPAs.
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Marking an encouraging trend, California beachgoers basked in a fourth consecutive summer of excellent water quality, according to the 2010 End of Summer Beach Report Card® released September 29, 2010 by Heal the Bay.
The Report
- 2010 Summer Report Card
PDF 300kb
Press Releases
Online Beach Report Card
In its latest survey, Heal the Bay assigned an A-to-F letter grade to 453 beaches along the California coast, based on levels of bacterial pollution reported from Memorial Day through Labor Day. This summer, 92% of sites received A or B grades, which is similar to last year.
But in a very troubling twist, state funding for routine water quality testing along California beaches may be eliminated next January due to the statewide budget crisis. If regional ocean-testing agencies can not secure the necessary funds, they will be forced to end water quality monitoring and the associated warning signs and public notification systems. Any cutbacks in testing pose a significant health risk for the millions of beachgoers who enter California oceans each year. Heal the Bay will continue to work with state and local governments to ensure funding for these critical programs.
In another development, Heal the Bay this year expanded the reach of its popular Report Card to the
Pacific Northwest. Working with local monitoring agencies, the organization issued its first set of
summertime water-quality grades for 154 beaches in Washington and Oregon. Overall, Pacific Northwest ocean users enjoyed very good water quality.
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County beaches were relatively clean this summer, with 79% of beaches receiving an A or B grade (similar to last year). Some of the beaches of most concern in L.A. this summer: Avalon Beach on Catalina, Long Beach’s Colorado Lagoon, Will Rogers at Temescal Canyon and Cabrillo Beach.
The perennially polluted Santa Monica Pier showed dramatic improvement this season, most likely from a number of water quality improvement projects over the past year. Santa Monica Pier received an A grade for the reporting period, which is a marked improvement from previous D and F grades.
Orange County
Orange County once again enjoyed great water quality this summer, with 97% of beaches receiving an A or B grade. Poche Beach and Newport Bay at Garnet Avenue received F grades, while perennially polluted Doheny Beach received a D grade. All historically poor beaches in Dana Point (Baby beach) received A grades.
San Diego County
San Diego County had excellent water quality, with all 77 monitored beaches winning an A or B grade (76 As and 1 B).
Ventura County
Overall water quality at beaches throughout Ventura County was excellent again this summer and among the best in the state. All 40 monitoring locations received A grades. Unfortunately, that figure is down from the 54 historically monitored locations, due to budget cuts.
Santa Barbara County
Water quality at beaches in Santa Barbara County was fairly good this summer, with 88% of monitored beaches receiving an A or B grade. Goleta Beach (C) and Arroyo Burro (F) were the only locations that did not earn an A or B grade.
In Central and Northern California, beach water quality was generally speaking very good. The beaches that received D or F grades include: Cowell Beach and Capitola Beach in Santa Cruz, Aquatic
The Beach Report Card is based on the routine monitoring of beaches by local health agencies and dischargers. Water samples are analyzed for bacteria that indicate pollution from numerous sources. Heal the Bay analyzes the data and assigns easy-to-understand grades to each beach. The better the grade a beach receives, the lower the risk of illness to ocean users.
Users can check updated weekly grades at www.beachreportcard.org. Heal the Bay offers the searchable online database as a free public service. Users can find out which beaches are safe and unsafe, check recent water quality history and look up details on beach closures.
Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card is made possible by the generous support of The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, simplehuman, Grousbeck Family Foundation, Carlson Family Foundation, Inc., and Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA). Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card is in its 20th year.
I’ve been going to temple since I was 3 years old. Although our
family is very involved in the University Synagogue community, I’m
certainly not a devout and strongly observant Jew. In fact, I always
felt more Jewish by culture (lots of meals at Junior’s, Canters and
Zucky’s growing up) than by faith.
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On September 25, 2010 from 9am to noon, 14,131 volunteers picked up 115,742 pounds of trash at 65 cleanup sites in L.A County as part of Heal the Bay’s
21st annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Braving the heat on the unusually hot
day, participants from families, local businesses, city crews,
faith-based organizations, schools and youth sports team worked
together to gather and remove the ocean-bound trash from
local watersheds.
CCD 2010 Results
- 14,131 volunteers
- 115,742 lbs. of trash
- 65 cleanup sites
- 101 miles cleaned
More About CCD 2010
Learn About Pollution
- Urban Runoff
The largest source of pollution to Southern California’s coastal waters.- Plastic Trash
Comprises 60-80% of all marine debris.- Marine Debris Database
Tracks what is picked up at cleanups.
Cleanups Year-Round
- Nothin’ But Sand
Monthly cleanups open to all- Adopt-A-Beach
For groups and clubs- Corporate Healers
Sponsor a cleanup, support HtB
The 65 sites spanned the entire county from Tujunga to Long Beach, and Compton to Malibu. Cleanup locations included beaches, inland waterways, parks and neighborhoods. Coastal Cleanup Day even hit the water as SCUBA dive teams cleaned under the Santa Monica and Redondo Beach piers, while kayakers removed trash from Marina del Rey.
Coastal Cleanup Day 2010 was a record-breaking day of action that made an immediate impact on our oceans. But its lasting impact is teaching people what they can do in their daily lives throughout the year to combat neighborhood blight and beach pollution.
Heal the Bay offers a variety of cleanups throughout the year for anyone to get involved at anytime.
Urban runoff from more than 200 storm drains flowing out to Santa Monica and San Pedro bays causes most of our local ocean pollution. By removing trash from beaches and inland neighborhoods, cleanup volunteers protect marine animals, enhance quality of life, and bolster the regional economy.
“Code Red” locations that received special attention this year included Dominguez Channel, Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, the Los Angeles River and Encino’s Haskell Creek. These urban sites drain runoff from huge areas of Los Angeles County and are overwhelmed by litter such as plastic trash and fast-food packaging.
Heal the Bay’s CCD events have collected a cumulative 1.57 million pounds of trash since 1990. Cigarette butts, plastic bottle caps and Styrofoam fragments are the most frequently found items at cleanups. Heal the Bay tracks what is collected at cleanups in our Marine Debris Database.
Among the unusual items found this year:
Coastal Cleanup Day sponsor Subaru hosted special test drive and sweepstakes events throughout the county to benefit Heal the Bay and raise awareness about the cleanup. Among other unique CCD-related special events: Give Back to the Beach – a food truck festival in Marina del Rey, the LA Craft Beer Crawl curated by food critic Jonathan Gold in downtown L.A., as well as a sunrise yoga session in Santa Monica, and three electronic waste drop-off/recycling collection sites run by Coastal e-Waste.
This year’s sponsors include Union Bank of California, the Grousbeck Foundation, KTLA5, the city of Santa Monica, Neutrogena, ClifBar and Subaru.
Heal the Bay organizes Coastal Cleanup Day in Los Angeles County in partnership with the California Coastal Commission. However, Coastal Cleanup Day is actually a global event led by the Ocean Conservancy for 6 million volunteers in 90 countries and all U.S. states. The day has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s biggest 24-hour volunteer event.
Everyone gets so freaked out about sharks, but the truth is that sharks have way more to fear from us than we do from them. Most sharks are small, and eat tiny crustaceans and stuff like that. Especially around SoCal. We have lots of sharks here, but not many of them could do much damage even if they wanted to (which they don’t). Case in point: at Mother’s Beach right now there are TONS of leopard sharks and rays. All small, not going to hurt you, but an incredible sight. Don’t miss it.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/29/local/la-me-leopard-sharks-20100830
The tide has turned against plastic water bottles! These super wasteful environmental nightmares clog landfills, float for years in the ocean, and the caps are often eaten by birds. Even scarier, those bottles can leach chemicals into the water, especially when they are reused or left in a hot car. That’s why it’s such good news that so many people are moving towards those reusable metal bottles, which are better for you and better for the world. There are some giant companies making reusable bottles out of all sorts of metal, but there’s a local who is making them out of stainless steel, which means they don’t need a chemical liner. Check out his company, and buy a bottle next time you see them in a store.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/ci_16125116
Back in the ’80s we heard so much about blue whales and bald eagles. They were both seriously endangered, and were probably going to go extinct. That’s why it’s so exciting to hear about how many blue whales are off the coast of SoCal this summer. If you want to see the largest animal that has ever lived, now is the time!
Check out these whale watches off the coast of Palos Verdes, and see what they’re looking at!
Long Beach has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, sometimes the LA River isn’t so pretty. So Long Beach gets all the trash that falls on city streets, is swept through the stormdrain system into the LA River and makes its way straight to the port. Good news, though. Starting now, 16 cities in LA County are putting super cool grates in their stormdrains, which means that when your neighbor throws his Styrofoam coffee cup out the window of his car, instead of being eaten by sea birds it will be caught in the grate and taken to a landfill. Now you just need to work on getting that neighbor to switch to a reusable cup…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/keeping-trash-from-going-with-the-flow-into-the-la-river.html
On Tuesday afternoon, the California State Water Board voted unanimously to support the Regional Water Board’s prohibition of on-site wastewater plants in the Malibu Civic Center area. Commercial facilities must be off septics by 2015 and residential sites must be off by 2019.
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The Surfrider Foundation, Malibu Surfing Assn., Santa Monica
Baykeeper and Heal the Bay held a joint press event Thursday morning
focused on cleaning up chronically polluted, iconic Surfrider Beach.
More than 50 Surfrider locals joined the environmental and surfing
groups at the rally, bringing attention to the two decades of “F” Beach
Report Card grades at California’s most famous beach. Everyone echoed
the common-sense edict that a day at the beach should never make you
sick.
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