Beach Report Card Beach Report Card
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BEACH REPORT CARD BEACH REPORT CARD Heal the Bay is an environmental non-profit dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds of Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy and clean. To fulfill our mission, we use science, education, community action and advocacy. The Beach Report Card program is funded by grants from ©2018 Heal the Bay. All Rights Reserved. The fishbones logo is a trademark of Heal the Bay. The Beach Report Card is a service mark of Heal the Bay. We at Heal the Bay believe the public has the right to know the water quality at their beaches. We are proud to provide West Coast residents and visitors with this information in an easy-to-understand format. We hope beachgoers will use this information to make the decisions necessary to protect their health. HEAL THE BAY TABLE OF CONTENTS THE BEACH REPORT CARD SECTION I: INTRODUCTION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................4 ABOUT THE BRC ................................................................................................5 SECTION II: CALIFORNIA SUMMARY CALIFORNIA BEACH WATER QUALITY OVERVIEW ...............................8 IMPACTS OF RAIN .............................................................................................11 ANATOMY OF A BEACH: SPOTLIGHTS .....................................................13 CALIFORNIA BEACH BUMMERS................................................................ 20 CALIFORNIA HONOR ROLL .......................................................................... 22 ANALYSIS BY BEACH TYPE ......................................................................... 24 SECTION III: 2017-18 BEACH NEWS FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS .............................................................................. 28 STORMWATER MEASURE ............................................................................ 29 L.A. RIVER MONITORING AND PROGRESS ON PUBLIC NOTIFICATION ................................................... 29 NOWCAST UPDATES ...................................................................................... 30 SECTION IV: WEST COAST COUNTY SUMMARIES COASTAL COUNTIES: CALIFORNIA ........................................................... 32 COASTAL COUNTIES: OREGON / WASHINGTON .................................. 49 SECTION V: APPENDICES A // HISTORY OF BEACH BUMMERS .........................................................53 B1 // GRADES BY COUNTY: CALIFORNIA ................................................ 54 B2 // GRADES BY COUNTY: WASHINGTON ............................................ 67 C // FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS .................................................... 72 D // METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 74 E // INDEX/BILLS ............................................................................................. 76 G // ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ 78 HEAL THE BAY // 2017-2018 BEACH REPORT CARD 3 I. INTRODUCTION WELCOME executive summary After a remarkably wet winter in 2017, California experienced less than average rainfall this year, with only the northernmost counties receiving rain on average with historic levels. Rain- fall tends to impact beaches by flushing pollutants from streets and roadways into the ocean. Less rain meant wet weather beach grades saw overall improvements throughout the state. While summer dry weather grades were also excellent, winter REPORT HIGHLIGHTS dry weather grades were worse than the five-year average. The Beach Bummer List holds a number of surprises this year. Less rain led to improvements in Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey, which had been a Bummer wet weather grades for the past four years, fell off the List this year. San Mateo | Page 11 | County landed four Beach Bummers, including three new-to- the-List beaches: Linda Mar Beach, Roosevelt Beach, and Surf- Cowell Beach fell out of top three er’s Beach. Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz County continues to Beach Bummer List for the first show improvements, falling five spots to No. 8. Poche Beach in time ever Orange County claims the No. 1 Beach Bummer spot. This lo- | Page 18 | cation, which is situated directly in front of the Prima Deshecha Cañada Channel, makes its first appearance as a Beach Bum- Poche Beach claims No 1. Beach mer since monitoring began in 2015 for “point zero” beach lo- Bummer, demonstrates how storm cations. A record thirty-seven beaches made the Honor Roll list drains impact beach water quality | Page 20 | this year, more than any other year since Heal the Bay began tracking annual grades. Honor Roll beaches came from San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, More beaches made the Honor Roll Orange, and San Diego Counties. this year than ever before | Page 22 | Looking to the future, Heal the Bay has partnered with Stanford University and UCLA on an innovative tool to predict beach water quality. We have designed predictive models, or beach Federal BEACH ACT grant funds water quality ’NowCasting’ tools, to predict daily water qual- threatened by budget cuts ity based upon historic data and environmental information for | Page 28 | a particular beach. Last summer Heal the Bay expanded the NowCast project from five to ten beaches and this summer The NowCast Predictive Modeling will see the launch of a new mobile app that will provide even program continues to expand easier access to daily predictions of beach water quality. | Page 30 | HEAL THE BAY // 2017-2018 BEACH REPORT CARD 4 I. INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE BRC THE 2017-18 BEACH REPORT CARD Since its inception over 25 years ago, the Beach Report Card has provided beachgoers with a reliable and easy-to-understand tool in analyzing beach water quality. The better the grade a beach receives, the lower the risk of illness to ocean users. The BRC is the result of an ongoing cooperation between shoreline monitoring agencies in California, Oregon and Washington. Beach water quality monitoring helps protect the health of millions of beachgoers in the U.S. each year by focusing remediation efforts on areas of greatest need and allowing the public to make informed decisions about where to get in the water. However, water quality information must be accessible and easy to understand for beachgoers to make these decisions. Heal the Bay’s Beach Report CardSM Program uses an intuitive A to F grading system to provide water quality information to the millions of people who use West Coast beaches. Simply put, the better the grade, the lower the risk HEAL THE BAY // 2017-2018 BEACH REPORT CARD 5 I. INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE BRC Introduction (continued) of illness to ocean users. This Annual Report is a roundup of water quality grades, rainfall totals, sewage spills, and other pertinent water quality events that occurred in the past year. Grades in the Annual Report are assigned for three distinct periods: El Segundo Beach @ Grand Avenue drain SUMMER DRY WEATHER April through October 2017 This is the most active beach recreation season in California, and cor- responds with sampling requirements set by the California Beach Bathing Wa- ter Quality Standards, Assembly Bill 411 (AB411). WINTER DRY WEATHER November 2017 through March 2018 Many Northern California counties do not sample during the winter season due to lower beach recreation. The winter season is graded separately to account for the lower number of counties con- Crystal Cove, Corona del Mar ducting water quality sampling. YEAR-ROUND WET Grades are based on routine beach wa- WEATHER CONDITIONS BEACH REPORT CARD April 2017 through March 2018 ter quality sampling conducted by county health agencies, sanitation departments, Wet weather is graded separately from and dischargers. Water samples are ana- dry weather. Wet weather samples are We at Heal the Bay believe the public lyzed for three fecal indicator bacteria taken during or three days following has the right to know the water quality (FIB) that indicate pollution from numer- a rain event greater than 0.10 inches. at their beaches. We are proud to ous sources, including human and ani- Water quality typically drops dramati- provide West Coast residents and mal waste. These FIB are total coliform, cally during or immediately following visitors with this information in an fecal coliform (Escherichia coli), and En- a rainstorm, but rebounds to previous easy-to-understand format. We hope terococcus spp. levels within a few days. Therefore, wet beachgoers will use this information weather grades are analyzed separately For more information about grading to make the decisions necessary to in order to avoid artificially lowering a lo- methodologies, please go to www.heal- protect their health. thebay.org, or call 1-800-HEAL BAY. cation’s grade. HEAL THE BAY // 2017-2018 BEACH REPORT CARD 6 WEST COAST SUMMARY II. WEST COAST SUMMARY OVERVIEW OVERVIEW OF CALIFORNIA BEACH WATER QUALITY California had excellent water quality during the summer dry season, with 96% of beach locations receiving an A or B grade. Higher grades are indicative of better water quality, and a lower health risk when OVERVIEW // TABLES recreating in the water. Winter dry grades were worse this year, with CALIFORNIA GRADES....................................... 10 only 77% receiving an A grade compared to the five-year average of NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GRADES .............. 10 81%. California had a drier than average rainy season, with rainfall SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GRADES .............