Do Your Part for California Beaches

Today's LA Times has an article about the poor water quality in Los Angeles County beaches due to urban runoff. Our goal at the LA Neighborhood Clean Up Project is to prevent problems like urban run-off to the extent we can. Unfortunately, however, the problem persists in our county and it only hurts our coastline. An excerpt from the story below:

"Although California may be famous for its surfing and swimming, the state ranked among the worst in beach water quality nationwide, coming in 22nd out of 30 coastal states. Los Angeles County was home to the most polluted beach water, with 20% of samples exceeding state standards.
. . .
"Bacteria can flow into beach water from sewage accidents such as the spill that forced closures in Long Beach on Monday. Storm water flowing through urban areas can also pick up animal waste, fertilizer, motor oil and other contaminants that are dumped into the ocean."

Check out the full story here.

Effectiveness of Catch Basin Screen Covers

An interesting conversation is taking place over at the LAist regarding the utility of catch basin screen covers. If you are not familiar with the catch basin screen covers, they are essentially screens placed over storm drains intended to allow water, but not the accompanying trash runoff, to flow down the storm drains. Although these are certainly an improvement, our observation has been that the trash tends to accumulate around the screens and is rarely swept up properly by the street sweepers.

The city of Los Angeles has installed a number of these screen covers, focusing particularly on the neighborhoods of Silver Lake, East Hollywood, Echo Park and other high-trash areas.

Has anybody come across any places where these screens are particularly effective? Is there anyway that we could improve upon the screens or make them more effective?

LA County Beaches, Still a Bummer

Heal the Bay released their annual California Beach Report Card earlier today. No surprise, but LA county beaches dominated the list of Top 10 "Beach Bummers" with the worst water quality in the state.

One of our organization's primary goals is to help prevent the runoff of the interior parts of the cities from reaching our city's beaches. The release of Heal the Bay's study demonstrates why it is essential to take care of our cities and beaches. If there is a silver lining to the study, it is the following statement in Heal the Bay's press release:

"One of the reasons that Los Angeles County lags in water quality is the fact that its monitoring agencies collect samples directly in front of flowing stormdrains and creeks. Monitoring at these 'point zero' locations, where polluted runoff often pools, is the best way to ensure that health risks to swimmers are captured in water quality data."

The LAist points out that some of the beaches listed below, however, are "nowhere near storm drains," such as Avalon Beach on Catalina Island.

Top 10 Beach Bummers

1. Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island (Los Angeles County)
2. Cabrillo Beach harborside (Los Angeles County)
3. Pismo Beach Pier (San Luis Obispo County)
4. Colorado Lagoon (Los Angeles County)
5. Santa Monica Municipal Pier (Los Angeles County)
6. City of Long Beach at LA River outlet (Los Angeles County)
7. Poche Beach (Orange County)
8. Surfrider Beach at Malibu Creek (Los Angeles County)
9. Campbell Cove State Park Beach (Sonoma County)
10. Doheny Beach at San Juan Creek (Orange County)

Heal the Bay's full report card available here.