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.
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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Key to the Sea is Heal the Bay’s marine environmental education program for teachers and elementary school children (K-5) throughout Los Angeles County.
The program focuses on watershed stewardship, stormwater pollution prevention, and marine conservation. Key to the Sea endeavors to promote environmental stewardship by stimulating students’ sense of wonder, learning and empowerment through key environmental experiences. Engaging hands-on educational activities for students, including a field trip to the beach, as well as exciting professional development opportunities for teachers are hallmarks of the program.
Plus, all of this is FREE*!
Program Components
Key to the Sea gives teachers the tools to conduct both pre- and post-field trip educational activities in the classroom and to prepare students to get the most out of the field trip.
Workshops are required to participate in the Key to the Sea program. These outstanding workshops prepare teachers with the knowledge and tools to be leaders of environmental stewardship with their students.
In Year 1 of the Key to the Sea program, teachers attend Workshop I. In Year 2, teachers attend Workshop II. At the workshops, each teacher receives a multi-disciplinary, standards-aligned guide and complete ready-to-use curriculum kit. Testimonials we’ve received show teachers find the trainings especially rewarding and well done! In addition, lunch is provided.
After completing Workshops I and II, teachers may continue to participate in the Key to the Sea program as “Veteran Teachers” for many years to come with no further workshops to attend. Veteran Teachers attend field trips with their students and receive supplies for classroom activities.
The heart of the Key to the Sea program for your students is a field trip to a local marine science center (Field Trip Options). The field trip includes an exciting Beach Exploration environmental education program on the sand. Children use scientific equipment to explore the beach and do hands-on, fun, educational activities.
*Note: Some field trip locations may have additional costs associated with them. Please refer to the Field Trip Options page. Buses are not provided; however, some funding may be available. Please call 310-393-6149 x108 for more information.
While on the beach, pictures are taken of each student. Back in the classroom, each child receives a special “enviro-frame” for his/her photo to color and personalize with memories of the Beach Exploration. This personal memento helps to anchor the outdoor learning and the children are thrilled to be able to share their experience on the beach with their families. According to the teachers, the enviro-frames and photos are one of the most popular components of the Key to the Sea program!
Young people, as future stewards of the environment, need to become aware of how stormwater pollution affects the beaches and marine environment, how they can protect themselves from the health risks of exposure to polluted waters, and how they and their families can make a difference by preventing pollution. Simple behavioral changes in our everyday living can make a positive impact on the problem. Children must be empowered to know that one person can make a difference.
It is to these ends that the Key to the Sea program aims. Key to the Sea makes it possible for children to experience nature and to learn about the important responsibility we all share in taking care of our coastal environment.
For example, the Beach Exploration portion of the field trip is designed to encourage students to use their senses, increase their observation skills and develop their sense of wonder. Children smell the salty air, hear the roaring surf, use binoculars and birdguides to observe bird behavior, and often see dolphins! They survey the organisms of the “wet zone” and “dry zone” of the beach, dig for sand crabs and bean clams, and examine beach wrack with magnifying lenses. The children see first hand the marine pollution and debris, learn how it impacts marine life, and make the connections to pollution prevention behaviors. In fact, many children who attend our Key to the Sea programs have never been to the beach, even though they may live within a few miles of the coast. This is the kind of direct experience with the natural environment early in life that is essential to caring about the environment as an adult.
In 1999, Heal the Bay established the Key to the Sea program in response to requests from Los Angeles County marine science centers and teachers for assistance in expanding their environmental education programs. Each year, Key to the Sea serves up to 10,000 students and 400 teachers. Reaction from teachers and students has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic!
Despite my therapeutic summer vacation in Alaska, I have been feeling
extremely bitter because of recent environmental events, with little
faith in humanity’s ability to preserve nature and protect public
health. The American Chemistry Council’s successful multimillion-dollar
campaigns to safeguard the rights of infants to ingest the potential
carcinogen BPA and marine life’s right to swallow or become entangled in
plastic bags would make any environmentalist angry. Throw in LADWP’s
legislative shenanigans to sidestep California’s once-through- cooling
power plant policy and the city council and anyone can see why I’ve been
feeling a bit cynical.
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Heal the Bay’s fifth consecutive “4-Star” rating assures that your contribution will be used in the most fiscally responsible way possible to improve the quality of Southern California coastal waters.
For the fifth consecutive year, Heal the Bay has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent evaluator of charities. Only 5% of the 5,400 charities rated by Charity Navigator have earned the 4-star rating for 5 consecutive evaluations.
Receiving four out of four stars indicates that Heal the Bay excels, as compared to other charities in America, in successfully managing the organization’s finances in an efficient and effective manner (please view Heal the Bay’s rating page at Charity Navigator).
Thus, when you give to Heal the Bay by joining or donating, you’ll know that your contribution directly supports activities to restore precious Southern California coastal waters and watersheds and protect public health at the beach.
Some of the activities your contribution supports include:
Heal the Bay was founded on a simple premise – that our oceans and beaches should be safe for everyone who loves to swim, surf, fish, or simply enjoy the beauty of the Southern California Coast. Help us reach that goal –join or donate today – be part of the solution and help make a difference in the quality of our Southern California coast!
By now you’ve heard the horrible news that AB 1998, which would’ve
banned single-use plastic bags at supermarkets and other selected
retailers statewide, went down to defeat by a 21-14 vote in the
California state Senate last night. The bill garnered global attention
as the world waited to see if the so-called Golden State could once
again lead the way on environmental protection and sustainability. The
Heal the Bay-sponsored measure also received unprecedented coalition
support from grocers, retailers, unions, cities, counties, and
environmental groups. But the vote wasn’t close.
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Last week the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power gutted and
amended a pending state bill (AB 1552) and inserted new language that
would have significantly eased newly established rules for how power
plants suck in ocean water to cool themselves. DWP leaders went on the
offensive against these regulations, even though an existing city policy
on Once Through Cooling legislation doesn’t exist. They moved forward
without a city council vote on the proposed legislation. (And in an
interesting bit of timing, lawmakers introduced the measure just as the
L.A. City Council commenced its two-week summer break.)
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