Heal the Bay’s 2007 California Summer Beach Report Card was released Thursday, and although Long Beach’s shores exhibited an improvement over last year, the city’s overall grade still ended in failure.

Long Beach and Avalon beaches again exhibited extremely poor water quality.  Despite significant problems, Long Beach’s water quality grades this year actually demonstrate an improvement from last summer. This summer there were 48% A and B grades in Long Beach. Last summer, this percentage was 12%.

“I think its safe to say that there is a renewed focus on tackling our city’s coastal water pollution, ” said Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster. “We aren’t going to clean it up overnight, but we’re taking the right first steps.”

Most of the polluted beaches lay between the Los Angeles River and Belmont Pier (8 poor grades) and in the Colorado Lagoon area. The city will soon undertake a source tracking study to identify the source(s) of fecal bacteria at city beaches.

“The major difference this summer was in Alamitos Bay,” said Mayor Foster. “We acted quickly on the information we learned about our Bay waters and it’s clear the difference that action made.”

The City has planned approximately $5.6 million in improvements for Colorado Lagoon, including dry weather storm water diversions; bioswales and culvert cleaning; dredging of contaminated sediment; and habitat restoration.

“While the coastal water grades have not improved, the City has already begun a Three-Phase Coastal Water Study that will research the source of contamination along open coastal beaches,” said Second District Councilmember Suja Lowenthal. “We will understand the problem better as the study progresses and then be able to formulate suggestions to improve the water quality.”

The Three-Phase Coastal Water Study, which should be completed in early 2008 includes:
–   Phase One: Began on September 4, 2007. Samples of the coastal waters are being tested to determine if contamination is an on-shore or off-shore problem, and the source of the contamination “hot-spots.”  Phase One should be completed by mid-October.
–   Phase Two: Once the “hot-spots” are determined, they will be examined for potential subsurface discharges (from leaking pipes, or stormwater discharge). Wells will be dug at the sites and sediment analyzed.
–   Phase 3: This would determine if the contaminated “hot-spots” are caused by human or non-human sources.

Only four of the 67 Santa Monica Bay beaches (6%) exhibited poor water quality this summer. Last summer there were 16 of 65 (25%) poor grades for Santa Monica Bay beaches.