Local beaches among the state's cleanest

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Santa Barbara beaches made the grade in Heal the Bay’s annual Beach Report Card released Wednesday, ranking as some of the cleanest places to take a dip along the state’s coastline.
During the dry, beach-going months, water quality at all 20 locations tested weekly from the Guadalupe Dunes to Rincon earned very good or excellent rankings, according to the report.
Ventura County measured up as the only other jurisdiction to receive top marks at every monitoring site during the dry season. In contrast, Los Angeles County stood out as one of the worst, with half of the 10 lowest-rated beaches in the state — locations that now wear the moniker of Beach Bummer.

“If I had a Beach Bummer, my phone would be ringing off the hook,” said environmental health specialist Willie Brummett, who runs the county’s ocean monitoring program.
Instead, the county’s good performance kept local beaches off the radar for the most part, he said, a performance he credited in large part to one of the driest seasons on the books.
“Even though we had decent rains, it was concentrated to the early part of the year,” Brummett said.
Record low rainfall across the state brought water quality up in general, according to the report, which found that 93 percent of 517 beaches measured weekly for bacterial pollution between April 2007 and March 2008 received good marks during summer months, an 8 percent improvement from the prior year.
But despite positive results during dry months, rainfall continued to contribute to poor water quality statewide and locally.
Measurements at local beaches dipped significantly with stormwater runoff adding pollutants and bacteria to the surf zone. Only 65 percent received “A” or “B” rankings, a figure that is still well above the state average.
During rainy stretches, 46 percent of the monitoring stations statewide turned in fair-to-poor performances, with 26 percent receiving a failing grade.
“The report card is great news for the millions of people that visit California’s beaches each year,” Dr. Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, said in a news release. “But it also demonstrates that stormwater pollution was as bad this winter as it was a decade ago. Local governments have a long way to go before making beaches safe year-round.”
Santa Barbara beaches with the most issues during the rainy season include Arroyo Burro Beach, East Beach at Mission Creek and Carpinteria State Beach. Those locations have the largest and most urbanized waterways spilling into them, Brummett said, lending to water quality issues.
“Look at Mission Creek,” he said. “It’s a channelized storm drain for the most part.”
Stormwater spills from yards and roadways into the concrete channel and doesn’t have a chance to filter along its route to the beach, Brummett said.
East Beach near Mission Creek earned an “F” rating during the wet season. Arroyo Burro Beach, Goleta Beach and Carpinteria State Beach are among those with “C” ratings during rainy periods.
Health officials also closed two local beaches following sewage spills in the past year, something Brummett said is a rare occurrence.
“That’s unusual,” he said. “It’s been years since we’ve had any.”
A spill of approximately 3,000 gallons closed East Beach from January 23 to 25. Brummett said that incident resulted from a backed-up sewer line that spilled into a storm drain. With steady rain that day, the sewage was likely heavily diluted, he said, but officials posted closure signs at the beach as a precautionary measure.
A second spill of 1,000 gallons about 4.5 miles north of Goleta Beach led to a precautionary closure on March 10 that lasted two days.
County officials have been measuring water quality at local beaches since 1998 with the onset of Project Clean Water, taking samples at local beaches and 25 yards downstream from creeks or outfall sites and increasing awareness of pollution runoff issues.
“I think it’s having an impact,” Brummett said. “It would be hard to tease that out though.”
Information about water quality at local beaches and test results are available at www.sbcphd.org/ehs/ocean.htm or by calling the Ocean Water Quality Hotline at 681-4949. Heal the Bay’s compete report is also available online at www.healthebay.org.