Palos Verdes home owners are lucky to have some of the cleanest beaches in California for our families to enjoy. After this years rain amounts, the winter numbers were higher than in prior years. However, it’s great to see that we will have our beaches clean and open the entire summer.
Every year the beach water is reported through the Heal the Bay reporting system. This year 12 beaches in Orange County, San Diego and Ventura made the top Honor Roll for 2023 & 2024. Los Angeles county beaches did not make this Honor Roll. Summer Dry Grades were excellent across the State with 89% of California beaches receiving A and B grades, which is on par with the average. Winter Dry Grades were below average with 66% of the beaches receiving A and B grades. Wet Weather Grades for the past year were also below average with 80% of the beaches receiving A and B grades. This means that our local waters have received grades of A & A+ during the summer dry part of the year. Heal the Bay assigns weekly grades to more than 500 sites along the West Coast for summer dry-weather water quality and to another 65 locations that are on year round monitoring. Heal the Bay is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to making Southern California coastal waters and watersheds safe, healthy and clean. They use science, education, community action and advocacy to pursue their mission. Mexico has also joined the monitoring with three of their beaches located in Tijuana. They are Playa El Faro, Playa El Vigia & Playa Blanca.
Heal the Bay published their first Beach Report Card in 1990 (this year is the 34th year of the Beach Card) and covered about 65 locations in Los Angeles County. At that time, beach goers knew little about the health risks of the water around them. Since that time, there has been a great deal more information to help keep pollution and sewage spills off our local beaches. The Beach Report Card (BRC) is based on the routine monitoring of beaches by local health agencies. They collect water samples checking for bacteria that indicate pollution. The better the grade on the beach means the lower the risk of illness to beach goers.
The numbers below come from the Summer Dry Grade, (April – October), Winter Dry Grade (November – March) & Wet Weather grade Year Round. Our local beach numbers came up at: Rancho Palos Verdes, Long Point – A – A – B, Rancho Palos Verdes, Portuguese Bend Cove – A+ – A – A+, Palos Verdes Estates, at Palos Verdes Cove – B – A – A, Palos Verdes Estates, at Malaga Cove rocks – B – D – A, Palos Verdes Estates, at Malaga Cove trail outlet – A+- B -A.
The Beach Report Card program is funded from grants from different foundations. Volunteer groups such as Nothing But Sand, Suite on the Sand and Coastal Clean Ups are constantly needed to help ensure this program continues to minimize the pollution of our beaches. Again as in years past, the Coastal Cleanup Month is September, and on Saturday, September 21, 2024, participants can help by volunteering at different locations from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. If you are interested in participating in this Heal the Bay event, you can click here. Our own local organizations such as Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and Los Serenos de Point Vicente offer residents additional opportunities to help clean our local beaches. Funding is always welcome to help Heal the Bay pay for the monitoring of our beautiful beaches.
To read more about Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card program click here.
To read my prior article on Heal the Bay beach report card click here.
Photo courtesy of Heal the Bay
