With June gloom lifting and summer officially starting this week, it’s time to hit the SoCal beaches. The Heal the Bay foundation came out with its latest report card to let people know where the cleanest (and dirtiest) beaches are.
“We always hear stories about people going to the beach who end up with skin rashes, red eyes, or even stomach aches,” says Alison Xinyi Wu, a water quality data specialist at Heal the Bay. “And these are likely caused by those pathogens in the water. And those pathogens are usually introduced by fecal matter. So we are measuring the bacterial levels to decide how much fecal matter is inside of the water body.”
Heavy rains last year contributed to higher than expected concentrations of pathogens in the water from storm runoff. “When rain washes things off from the road, from roofs, then everything will just be washed directly to the ocean without treatment through the storm drain. So this means there are a lot of bacteria washed directly into the ocean when there is a rain event,” notes Wu.
Heal the Bay has suggestions for what people can do to limit their own storm run-off: install rain barrels and transform residential front lawns into landscapes that can hold more rain.
Wu adds, “Our cities can build parks that capture more stormwater from nearby neighborhoods. And also there can be some large-scale diversion projects to help recharge groundwater.”
So where should beach fans go this summer? Malibu and Huntington Beach. They should avoid Santa Monica Pier and Mother’s Beach in Marina Del Rey. However, most of SoCal is in the clear now that the rain events are over.