Is it safe to go in the water? The Natural Resources Defense Council’s 23rd annual beachwater quality report can’t tell you if there are any great whites around, but it can tell you how often a specific vacation-destination beach exceeded accepted levels of bacteria during routine testing.
Nationally, California ranked 20th out of 30 states monitored for beach water quality, according to the NRDC report. Although the Golden State has fewer than 15 percent of the 3,000 beaches monitored nationwide, its shorelines accounted for about 25 percent of the nation’s total of more than 20,000 days of beach closings or advisories due to pollution or threatened contaminations last year, the report noted.
Three California beaches, all in Southern California, were even added to NRDC’s “repeat offender” list, meaning they have show persistent contamination problems over the last five years: Avalon Beach (in four out of five areas monitored) and Orange County’s Doheny Beach (six out of seven monitored sections) and Poche County Beach.
In 2012, 10% of all beach water monitoring samples from the more than 430 California beaches included in the report violated the state’s daily maximum bacterial standards, the NRDC noted. The beaches with the highest rates of exceeding the state’s bacterial maximums were:
- Avalon Beach, on Catalina Island (Los Angeles County), specifically 50 feet west of the Green Pleasure Pier (83 percent of tests);
- Poche County Beach in Orange County (67 percent)
- Aquatic Park in San Mateo County (63 percent)
- Pillar Point-Capistrano in San Mateo County (52 percent)
- Avalon Beach east of the Casino Arch at the steps (50 percent).
More than 80 percent of the closings and advisories nationwide were issued because testing revealed bacteria levels in the water that violated public health standards, confirming that serious water pollution persists at many U.S. shores, the NRDC press release for the report noted. The primary known causes of this pollution are stormwater runoff and sewage.
“Despite less rainfall flushing pollution to our coastal waters this year, too many of California’s beaches remain a risk for beachgoers,” said project attorney Noah Garrison. “The millions of residents and tourists who flock to California beaches each year are still swimming in dirty water that could cause serious illness. Monitoring is critical to let people know where it’s safe to go in the water, but it only goes so far. We need to address the root of the problem, which is mainly polluted stormwater runoff.”
But there are some bright spots in the report. Three beaches in California received “Superstar” ratings for their water quality and practices for testing and public notification, out of a total of 13 nationwide. Sadly for us Northern Californians, they’re all in Orange County: Bolsa Chica, Newport Beach (specifically the sections monitored at 38th and 52d/53rd streets), and San Clemente State Beach‘s Las Palmeras and Avenida Calafia sections.
To see how your favorite beach rates, check out the updated, mobile-friendly , Zip code searchable map of more than 3,000 beaches nationwide here.
— Jeanne Cooper
San Clemente State Beach is a national 'superstar' in terms of clean water and testing practices, as far as the Natural Resources Defense Council is concerned. Above: Its Las Palmeras section, one of two areas singled out for acclaim in the NRDC's annual beach water-quality report.
Six out of seven monitored sections of Orange County's Doheny Beach earned it a non-coveted spot on the NRDC's 'repeat offender' list.
Poche County Beach in Orange County is also on the NRDC's national 'repeat offender' list.
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