Most Polluted Beaches In California

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released their twentieth annual U.S. beaches report card today. Their round up of 2009 beach closings and water samples reveal that 9% of the total beachwater samples taken in California violate the state's health and safety standards. Accidental sewage spills and stormwater runoff are the biggest contributors to the pollution, which can include human and animal waste.

The samples are collected multiple times during 2009 in ankle-deep water near areas of probable contamination, like where storm drains enter the ocean. The samples are then compared to the state's "daily maximum bacterial standards." The NRDC warns that bacteria in polluted ocean water can cause "stomach flu, skin rashes, pinkeye, ear, nose, and throat problems, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments, neurological disorders, and other serious health problems." Not a good way to be spending the summer.

Still, David Beckman of the NRDC notes the complexities of sample-collecting and warns beachgoers against making assumptions. He uses Southern California as an example:

Many of us assume that beach water quality must be more or less the same within the same region or community, but that is not true. In Southern California, for example, we have some of the very best beaches in the country--and some of the worst. Most of the time, you can't tell which is which just by standing on the sand and looking. That is why testing the water is so important.

Here's a round up of the 10 most polluted beaches in California.

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Avalon Beach (Los Angeles County)

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82% of Avalon Beach's samples north of GP Pier tested higher than the State's standards for maximum bacterial levels. Other sites of the Avalon Beach exceeded standards: 52% near Busy B Cafe, and 44% South of GP Pier.

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82% of Avalon Beach's samples north of GP Pier tested higher than the State's standards for maximum bacterial levels. Other sites of the Avalon Beach exceeded standards: 52% near Busy B Cafe, and 44% South of GP Pier.

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Comments

[zumajim]

07:22 PM on 08/02/2010

Sad to see Surfrider (Malibu) still on this list. I've surfed it for years, preferring it in fall/winter when the rains are supposed to make it worse. I've never gotten sick once, but I realize that's probably just luck.

[ghunt]

12:08 PM on 08/04/2010

Surfed there for years. Got sick only once, back in 1994.

[Libertyfan]

12:41 PM on 08/02/2010

Laguna Beach did not make the list, but I'm concerned because it's surrounded by beaches that did.

[Joye]

02:01 AM on 07/30/2010

Newport Bay? Say it ain't so. And Santa Monica Beach?? I used to go there as a teen...

[LeeCalif]

07:44 PM on 07/29/2010

This isn't a very accurate report since testing has dropped off some 28% due to budget cuts.

Most people don't know that San Diego routinely dumps under treated sewage into it's coastal waters where tourists and citizens love to swim. Millions of gallons per week.

Their mayor won another 2 year extension to continue to pollute recently.
Along with that there's what the cruise ships 'contribute' when they pull into dock.

[prdamericanmom]

01:17 AM on 08/04/2010

Thank you. I grew up in SD and the water got worse as I got older. Let's not forget what used to be the Children's Pool in La Jolla, either. Or wait, how about the raw sewage the flows in from TJ during the El Nino years (whic are worse than the usual dry years)? The pipes that are supposed to carry the caca out aren't nearly long enough.

[LLisaLL]

07:32 PM on 07/29/2010

That was thoroughly depressing. How about we work from the other direction and get a list of the least polluted California beaches?

[wonmean]

11:35 PM on 07/29/2010

Seconded.

[SolarPowerGuy]

03:07 AM on 07/30/2010

Hey, none of the beaches I frequent are on that list -- and I like my peace and quiet. :^)

[ilovecandy]

07:26 PM on 07/29/2010

Don't eat the fist from San Francisco Bay, just a warning.

[SolarPowerGuy]

03:08 AM on 07/30/2010

Don't eat a fist, no matter where it comes from.

[ilovecandy]

09:31 AM on 07/30/2010

I meant fish.

[hjalmar]

07:19 PM on 07/29/2010

Anyone know why Avalon's bacteria count is so high? Never would have thunk it.

[LanceThruster]

04:35 PM on 08/02/2010

True, although it makes sense in a way. The particulars of ocean current and the properties that make for a bay in the first place, coupled with the small island's resources to handle its sewage flow and the concentration of population around the bay in the first place. "Mother's Beach" in Marina del Rey didn't make the cut here but is known as having consistently poor water quality. see: http://wikimapia.org/25757/Mother-s-Beach

[Maezeppa]

06:52 PM on 07/29/2010

The story photograph with the stack in the background is Manhattan Beach on a cloudy day. It is not listed as polluted in the story, and it very lovely and clean, crowded when special events are going on.

[VNJD]

06:35 PM on 07/29/2010

Tourists still go swimming in the skanky water at "Baby Beach" in Dana Point Harbor next to Doheny. EEEEEEEEW!!

[Longbaugh]

05:30 PM on 07/29/2010

I used to work at the Denny's across the street from Doheny. Dirty beach but a nice area.

[SilentSolidarity]

05:09 PM on 07/29/2010

The general rule for beaches is go to a beach, far away from any metropolitan area. Those beaches are clean, beautiful and you rarely see people.

[Candid One]

05:53 PM on 07/29/2010

That's not readily doable in California, our most populous state.

[SilentSolidarity]

06:07 PM on 07/29/2010

I'm from Germany. Germany is about the same size of California but has more than 80 million people. They have some very clean empty beaches far away from any metropolitan area. If they have those beaches, California definitely has some, too.

38 million people on that much land is a joke in Europe.

[plaidsportcoat]

07:09 PM on 07/29/2010

Actually, there are lots of clean beaches in Cali...in remoter places. There's a ton of coastline that doesn't have too many people on it in the northern half of the state.
Cold H20 in the north, warmer in the south.

[relians]

03:46 PM on 07/29/2010

i was born here in california, in 1950. back when i was between 12 and 19 years old i spent a large amount of time at the beach. mostly seal beach and what is now called bolsa chica. we used to call bolsa chica, "tin can beach" because there were almost as many tin cans as sand. (tin can, guess that shows my age!) these beaches are much cleaner than they were then. so we have made some improvements, and as long as we can publicize these types of things, we can work to improve them.

[Candid One]

05:58 PM on 07/29/2010

From someone senior, in 1967, in the same beach area, I was in the waist-deep in the surf zone when I stepped on the base of a broken bottle. Eight weeks on crutches, 39 stitches on that foot. I'd been going there since the early fifties, my luck ran out.

[Jackalheadedgod]

09:53 PM on 07/29/2010

I came home from boot camp in 1969 and went body surfing in Newport. For one wave. Exited water vomiting from fecal smell. I think the waste treatment plant in Fountain Valley was on the fritz. It got better.

Cheers,
Jack

[Goliadkin]

03:40 PM on 07/29/2010

The 'Bu is spew?

[zumajim]

07:25 PM on 08/02/2010

Maybe it will change for the better once the new sewage treatment "plant" is finished this year. It's actually a new park that will use subterranean sediment filtration to purify the runoff form Malibu Canyon. That plus they're putting in a pumping station to pipe a large percentage of runoff back UP the canyon, over the mountains to Calabasas.

[Goliadkin]

09:38 PM on 08/02/2010

Does that mean I'll be able to get a wave?

[Incumbent]

03:40 PM on 07/29/2010

Come to San Diego! Our beaches are nowhere to be found on this list (and we desperately need the money).

[deven61]

03:57 PM on 07/29/2010

Are you not claiming Imperial Beach...which SHOULD be on this list...

[SilentSolidarity]

04:51 PM on 07/29/2010

But they should be. Imperial Beach is serious! And I'm pretty sure that Mission Beach and Coronado can make it on the list, too.

[vibroluxor]

03:24 PM on 07/29/2010

Avalon surprises me - all that blue water...!

[Aripottah]

05:29 PM on 07/29/2010

Not if you consider boaters with through hulls! Doesn't take much.

[vibroluxor]

05:35 PM on 07/29/2010

Good point!

[zumajim]

07:32 PM on 08/02/2010

The beach at Avalon really is disgusting -- no better than the innermost parts of a large marina. Head west to Descanso Beach near the casino for a much cleaner, quieter environment.