Water quality along Los Angeles County’s coast, according to Heal the Bay’s annual Beach Report Card, was a mixed bag this year, reflecting a statewide trend — though there was some good news.
Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit, released its 33rd annual beaches report on Wednesday, June 14. The report details the amount of pollution at California beaches in hopes of providing ocean-lovers with a guide on where to swim safely.
The grades are split into three seasonal categories: summer dry, wet weather and winter dry.
“The one most people are going to be paying attention to the most is the summer dry rates,” Luke Ginger, a water quality scientist with Heal the Bay, said in a Wednesday interview. “That’s an analysis of the water quality during the summer months when it isn’t raining — when most of the people are going out to the beach.”
With the summer solstice a week away, Wednesday’s report won’t deter those itching to grab their swimsuits.
That’s because Los Angeles County scored high in that category. About 94% of the beaches in the county, the report said, received A and B grades, though that was one percentage point lower than the statewide average.
Nearly all of Long Beach’s coastline, for example, received summer dry ratings in the B-to-A+ range, with just one — the city beach at Prospect Avenue, near the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier — scoring a C.
The surf in Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates and Malibu received similarly high summer dry grades as well, the report said, notwithstanding the Redondo Beach Pier’s C rating.
But the county’s coastline, like the state in general, didn’t fare so well in the wet weather category — largely because of this winter’s deluge and a series of sewage spills in the region.
There was a 143% spike in the county’s precipitation rate over the past year, the report said, one of the most dramatic increases in entire state. The runoff from…
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