Beach at Chautauqua Heads ‘Worst Water Quality’ List

Heal the Bay announced last week that this past summer beaches in Los Angeles County had the worst water quality in the state, with Will Rogers State Beach at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon heading the list. While each beach is known to have its own particular set of problems, Santa Monica beach is “notoriously” bad, said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, “in spite of the installation of a $1.2-million low-flow diversion project.” Because Santa Monica Canyon was for years considered one of the bay’s worst polluters, it was selected by the City of Los Angeles as one of the first sites for a low-diversion facility in 2002. Years of failing grades, not only in the wet winter months but also in what is known as the dry season (April to October), prompted the city to install the system, which is designed to redirect runoff to the Hyperion treatment plant in El Segundo instead of allowing it to flow directly into the ocean. Although last year’s end-of-summer grade at Will Rogers Beach was an A, this summer it was an F. Gold placed the blame directly on the diversion system, which he sees as flawed, starting with the berm, which is “grossly undersized. It needs to be twice as high and the drain is not cleaned out often enough. We’ve talked about it but not enough has been done, although there have been some small changes.” In 2002, runoff from Santa Monica Canyon was estimated to be four million gallons of dirty water a day: more, as it turns out, than the diversion catch basin can handle. In late July, Alfredo Magallanes, an engineer with the City’s Bureau of Sanitation in charge of the watershed protection division, proposed a number of modifications to the facility. These included upsizing the pumps and removing debris in the flow’s path, which required, among other things, an analysis of the capacity of the electrical panel. This was supposed to happen “within a week and a half,” Magallanes said at the time. “Those issues should have been resolved by now, although its not as easy as just throwing money at these things,” Gold said. “It’s not that simple.” Since 2002, the state has provided $78 million under the Clean Beach Initiative to clean up the most polluted beaches. “Although progress was seen in most coastal counties,” Gold noted, “[this year] L.A. County’s beaches took a turn for the worse. Now, local coastal cities have only nine months to clean up their act or they risk being in violation.” The message from Heal the Bay was clear: unless minimum water-quality standards are met by next July, both the city of L.A. and the county departments responsible will be susceptible to fines’up to $32,500 per day’under the Clean Water Act. Come July 31, all California beaches will be required to comply with new state water-quality standards or risk enforcement action. However, as of now, “L.A. is nowhere close to meeting those standards,” Gold said. “We need to shape up, clean up. You would think the health risks alone would be enough to spur action, but unfortunately it’s not.” Starting in the new year, additional funds will be available through Proposition O, approved on last November’s ballot. The measure provides for up to $500 million for projects to clean up and treat storm water before it gets washed into rivers and oceans. (Editor’s note: Magallanes told the Palisadian-Post this week that some modifications to the Santa Monica diversion project have been made and that a “test run” will be conducted before the end of the month to “make sure it is now running the way it should. We are confident it will,” he said.]