They’re Number One!

And number two has something to do with it. A study released by an environmental group concludes that Los Angeles county has the dirtiest water at their beaches in the entire state of California. Whoo hoo! Bragging rights all around.

"We're number one," said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, which oversees the annual report. "It seems to be the same overall result, but this year the story is different. Usually you can point to Santa Monica Bay as the problem but we've never seen what we saw in Long Beach this summer."

The Santa Monica-based clean water group released its annual end-of-summer beach report card, which grades beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border.

Water samples collected between Memorial Day and Sept. 30 were analyzed for bacteria. The better the grade, the lower the risk of illness to beachgoers. Overall the state's water quality looked good, the report said.

Long Beach traditionally scores well during the summer months, Gold said. This year, however, only 12 percent of the water samples taken in the area got high clean-water marks, in comparison to 91 percent last year. City officials who are still investigating the source of the pollution, say part of the problem may have been a leaking pump station used by several boats.

The city's low grade contributed to the county's overall poor showing.

For the most part, beaches in Santa Monica Bay did a little better than last summer. The underachievers include: Santa Monica Pier, Dockweiler State Beach at Ballona Creek mouth, part of Manhattan Beach and the Redondo Municipal Pier.

Pollutants in Santa Monica Bay have been a problem for years and some of the area's most famous beaches have repeatedly received poor grades from Heal the Bay. Most contamination occurs during winter when heavy rains overload storm drain and sewage systems, washing waste directly into the sea. Swimming in such waters can cause gastrointestinal, respiratory and other illnesses.

Regional water officials decided in September to begin a process of fining cities surrounding Santa Monica Bay up to $10,000 a day if beaches do not meet clean-water standards. Los Angeles County is spending $1 million to try and pinpoint the pollution sources in Malibu that end up in the bay.

That last sentence gives us an opportunity to point out, once again, that the Malibu beach problems are possibly the result of the Sewage of the Stars™. But the stars are much to busy manning the barricades to allow a sewer line to run through Malibu. The stars care about the little people, so long as it doesn't inconvenience them in any way. And so long as they can dump their sewage where they please.

Here's the map of the area.

• 

  By BubbaB, Wednesday, 25 October , 2006 @ 2:05 pm

  “Sewage Interruptus”?

  Okay, I promised I would stop, but I couldn’t help it!!

Other Links to this Post