Long Beach achieves record summer beach water quality grades - Long Beach Press-Telegram
LONG BEACH — Every beach in the city received A or B grades in Heal The Bay's annual summer water quality report card, the best showing in 21 years of surveying.
Among the 15 beach sites studied for bacteria, fecal matter and general pollution levels in Long Beach, the worst grade was a B at Mother's Beach for the period from late May to early September.
Several beaches monitored by the organization routinely earn D or F grades in the report, but not this year.
Beaches at 10 th Place, Belmont Pier, Prospect and Granada avenues, and 55 th and 72 nd places received A+ grades.
All other locations, including the Colorado Lagoon and locations between downtown and the peninsula earned A's.
Heal The Bay's "Beach Bummer" study, available at www.healthebay.org, noted that improvements in Long Beach helped boost the entire county's water quality report card, which receives the worst overall grades of any region in California.
The city earned its best grades since the nonprofit began monitoring beaches in 1990.
"Results for the 2011 summer season indicate that sample bacterial water quality standards at these city beaches were met 95 percent of the time, continuing a positive trend," said Matt King, a spokesman with Heal The Bay. "Major efforts taken by the city to reduce dry weather discharges from storm drains, intercept trash and sediment, and improve circulation and mixing
appear to have positively impacted water quality."Among the state's worst beaches were in Avalon on Catalina Island, where sewage pipes leaking pollutants and fecal matter have befallen the tourist village's beaches for years.
All five Avalon beaches scored F grades in the report card, though Heal The Bay said the community has secured $5 million to repair the deteriorating sewage system.
Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro also scored an F, despite $15 million in upgrades to local sewage systems and storm drains in recent years.
Beaches receiving A+ grades reported almost no harmful pollutants, said Amanda Griesbach of Heal The Bay.
Researchers said most of Long Beach's past troubles have been caused by bacteria-laden filth flowing down the Los Angeles River and into the Long Beach Harbor.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to place storm drain filters in cities upstream from Long Beach to reduce those impacts.
"An extensive bacterial source study conducted by Long Beach has shown that the majority of contamination in city beaches can be traced to a surface plume from the Los Angeles River driven by a south-southwest wind," researchers said.
"Our water quality grades improved by an impressive 27 percent over last summer, and even more over summer 2009," said Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, whose 2nd District includes many of the surveyed beaches.
Heal The Bay tracks beaches across California and the Pacific Northwest through weekly sampling of water quality.
LONG BEACH GRADES
5th Place and Ocean Boulevard: A
10th Place and Ocean Boulevard: A+
Molino Avenue and Ocean Blvd.: A
Coronado Avenue and Ocean Blvd.: A
Belmont Pier: A+
Prospect Avenue: A+
Granada Avenue: A+
55th Place and Ocean Blvd.: A+
Alamitos Bay and 56th Place: A
Alamitos Bay at Bayshore Playground: A
Alamitos Bay at Second Street: A
72nd Place at Ocean Blvd.: A+
Mother's Beach: B
Colorado Lagoon (north): A
Colorado Lagoon (south): A
28 Sep, 2011--
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