SAND, SURF AND A STEW OF BACTERIA
Report: Beaches may make you sick
LOS ANGELES – Gerry Klatt gazes across the beach toward a peaceful bay at Cabrillo Beach, seemingly the perfect place for his daily dip. But he won’t swim there.
Instead, Klatt braves the pounding waves about 100 yards away on the side of the beach exposed to open ocean where he believes the seawater is cleaner.
On many days, he’d be right. The inner side of Cabrillo Beach in Los Angeles’ port town of San Pedro leads the list of California beaches that saw the highest percentage of days with a bacteria count deemed potentially dangerous. It’s part of a report released Tuesday that lists the most troubled beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states.
The Environment America Research and Policy Center study looked at the number of days in 2018 that the water had bacteria counts exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards, which can potentially sicken swimmers.
Most days of the year, beaches are safe, but researchers found bacteria counts can spike on certain days, and fecal matter from people or animals is the chief culprit. It comes when sewers overflow or when fecal waste on streets washes into streams or creeks that flow to lakes or the ocean. A coauthor of the study said more work
needs to be done to clean up lakes and oceans.
“It’s hard to believe that 47 years after we passed the Clean Water Act that we are still concerned with poop in the water when people want to go swimming,” said John Rumpler, clean water program director for the center.
In Chicago, 19 of 19 beaches sampled had at least one day last year when beaches were potentially unsafe for swimming. The Chicago Park District said in a statement that its beaches are within both its own and the state of Illinois’ established risk levels and that it uses a different testing method, resulting in levels that are lower than what’s reflected in the report.
The Gulfport East beach in Mississippi showed high levels on 44 out of 66 days sampled. Tanner Park in New York’s Suffolk County registered high on 48 out of 71 samples. Cupertino Park near Milwaukee was unacceptable on 40 of 60 samples.
The bayside of Cabrillo Beach registered unsafe on 85 occasions in one section and 43 in another out of 175 samples last year, the report says.
The city’s recreation department, which operates the beach, referred inquiries to the California Coastal Commission, which issued a statement that said curtailing pollution is a high priority: “Our $45 billion a year coastal economy depends on keeping the water and beaches clean.”
Cabrillo is challenged because its inner beach stretches at the end of a narrow bay near an industrial port where water doesn’t circulate as easily as on the ocean side. It’s hemmed in by a large marina complex on one side and the port’s breakwater on other. It’s within sight of large ships and barges making their way into the wharves in one of the nation’s busiest ports.
On a sunny Sunday as his daughter Alis frolicked with other kids in the water, Raymond Zuniga, 20, of Los Angeles said he likes Cabrillo more than other local beaches, some of which smell “like petroleum,” he said.
Drew Martin, 31, who lives nearby in San Pedro, said that overall, he thought the beach was pretty clean as he chased his 1-year-old son, Owen, through the sand.
“Pollution (that) gets washed into high-energy beaches will dissipate pretty quickly. When it comes through streams and areas where there is not a lot of circulation, it just washes back and forth.”
Mara Dias Surfrider Foundation
When it comes to water quality, beaches aren’t always what they seem. In the East, septic systems can leak into creeks. On all coasts, water can become contaminated by bird droppings, said Mara Dias, water quality manager for the Surfrider Foundation.
The stillness of the water can make a difference.
“Pollution (that) gets washed into high-energy beaches will dissipate pretty quickly,” Dias said. “When it comes through streams and areas where there is not a lot of circulation, it just washes back and forth,” not like when exposed to the open ocean.
Though many counties and states are good about closing beaches when pollution levels are too high and posting signs to warn beachgoers, she urged those planning a trip to the shore to check water quality reports before they arrive.
The good news? Luke Ginger, water quality scientist for Heal the Bay, another organization devoted to clean oceans, said the trend has been toward improvement. Local governments, he said, have done a better job of capturing, recirculating or treating stormwater runoff, among other steps.
“There are improvements that can be made, but for the most part, there’s really good water quality. There are just a few beaches that have issues,” he said.