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Ain’t that a beach!
California is famous for its 900 miles of coastline, with signature beaches up and down the coast. However, the water at some spots is a whole lot cleaner than others — which is worth bearing in mind next time you want to take a dip.
Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit that works to keep California’s coast healthy and clean, recently dropped its “Beach Report Card” to rank the best and the worst beaches when it comes to water quality.
The report uses an A-F grading system, testing water samples for harmful bacteria including three key fecal indicator bacteria: total coliform, fecal coliform (E. coli) and Enterococcus species. “High concentrations of these bacteria indicate the presence of pathogens that could be harmful to beachgoers,” according to Heal the Bay’s site.
The water at 500 beaches was tested for the report.
THE ‘HONOR ROLL’:
First up is the 2025 ‘Honor Roll’ — a distinction earned by just 62 of the 500 beaches. “Honor Roll” beaches were determined to have the safest water quality. Some of the top locations with beaches on the “Honor Roll” include:
Orange County: 34 beaches on the list, including Balboa Beach Pier and Crystal Cove, El Moro Beach.
San Diego County: 12 beaches on the list, including Mission Beach, Belmont Park and Point Loma, Lighthouse.
Ventura County: 5 beaches on the list, including County Line Beach and Silverstrand at Santa Paula Dr.
Los Angeles County: 7 beaches on the list, including Dockweiler State Beach at Grand Ave., Manhattan Beach at 28th St. and Hermosa Beach at 26th St.
LA County did not make honor roll the previous two years, but this year, pristine beaches in Malibu and the Palos Verdes Peninsula helped the county float to the top of the list.
Santa Barbara also made the honor roll for the first time since 2021 with the A+ Guadalupe Dunes, praised for its vastly improved water quality.
Heal the Bay awards grades based on water testing data from a variety of public and nonprofit agencies.
Testing in counties such as Los Angeles and Orange usually occurs every week or two.
Water quality can swing wildly from week to week, even for honor roll beaches.
For example, Manhattan Beach, which enjoyed an A+ ranking for most of last year, plunged to an F rank in November — possibly due to a series of thunderstorms in Los Angeles late in the month.
Manhattan has since dithered between Ds and Cs, and it held a C grade as of the latest test from the LA County Department of Public Health, conducted last Friday.
Dockweiler State Beach, near LAX, had been a beach bummer in the 2022 report card, but it maintained a consistent high grade throughout the year and currently holds an A+, as of Friday’s test.
THE ‘BEACH BUMS’:
Things have been consistently “bleh” for the waters at Santa Monica Pier, which held an F grade all year and won an embarrassing honor — as the grossest beach in California.
The rides and games of the Santa Monica Pier’s amusement park attract hordes of sea birds that relieve themselves in the ocean, sending poop-born bacteria into the water and sand, according to Heal the Bay.
Towns south of the US border are known to dump untreated sewage into the Tijuana River, proving to be a scourge for San Diego area beaches.
Other surf cesspools included Chicken Ranch Beach north of San Francisco, which sees grime carried in by urban drains, according to Heal the Bay.
On a recent trip to the Santa Monica Pier, The California Post observed throngs of beachgoers splashing around in water and sand that’s apparently rife with E. coli, Enterococci and other germs that could give them infections, dysentery and skin rashes.
But at least one surf bum in Santa Monica took the nasty news in stride.
“It’s just water. I go take a shower afterwards,” the surfer, who gave his name as Aiden, said.
But that doesn’t mean one should avoid Santa Monica altogether: the town’s beaches north of the pier enjoy consistently stellar test results from LA Public Health.
“When people go to the beach, maybe they’re looking at the weather or the UV index. What we’re trying to get people to realize is, what is the water quality, too?” said Mara Dias, a water quality expert for the Surfrider Foundation.
The Surfrider Foundation offers online maps of the muck — or lack thereof — of beaches throughout the country.
Water quality can change from day to day and depends on myriad natural and man-made factors.
For instance, experts advise not to swim in the ocean after it rains — especially in Los Angeles.
“[LA] is part of one big bowl, one big watershed. Once it rains, everything finds its way from our stormwater drains to our oceans,” warned Dr. Amalia Amada, of the University of Southern California’s Sea Grant Program.
Coastal waters with little circulation are especially vulnerable, such as Pillar Point Harbor Beach near San Francisco, where artificial jetties trap the water and turn it into a cookpot for bacteria soup.
But the biggest beach hazards are storm drains, creeks and rivers that carry pollution from further inland.
Worse: It can be hard to tell how polluted a spot is just by looking at it.
A beach may have immaculate sand and crystal clear water but still be teeming with potentially dangerous germs, Mara Dias, of the Surfrider Foundation, said.
But in brighter news, filth doesn’t really travel once it hits the ocean. Surfers who ride the waves even a half mile from the Santa Monica Pier probably won’t encounter the same bird-born bacteria that make its water and sand so gross.
Beach-goers should do their research before heading out for some fun in the sun, and also stick to historically clean waterfronts, experts said.
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