Heal The Bay 2011 Beach Report Card: See How Los Angeles Stacks Up

According to Heal the Bay's annual Beach Report Card, LA county's beach monitoring programs remain robust and almost unaffected by state budget cuts. Heal The Bay credits this to "the structure of the program, sewage treatment plant and stormwater permit monitoring requirements, and the shared monitoring responsibilities between agencies in the county."

Unfortunately, the good news doesn't extend to our actual beach grades. Only 70% of Los Angeles County beaches received an "A" or "B" grade during dry weather months for acceptable levels of bacteria, down from last year's 80%. Wet weather testing revealed that only 29% of beaches received an "A" or "B" grade, down from 50% last year. In fact, 46% of beaches received an "F" grade during the wet season. It's not all gloom and doom though; highly trafficked tourist beaches in Malibu, Santa Monica, and Venice all had "some stretches of very good to excellent summer water quality."

Check out a breakdown of the best and worst public beaches in Los Angeles county (graded in both wet and dry months) and plan accordingly for all your summer day trips!