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.
As it turns out, 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 new report released Tuesday that lists the most troubled beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states.
The study looked at the number of days in 2018 that the water had bacteria counts exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards. The Environment America Research and Policy Center report says the high counts can sicken an estimated 75,000 swimmers a year.
Most days of the year, beaches are considered safe. But researchers found bacteria counts can spike on certain days with fecal matter from people or animals as 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 co-author of the study says it shows more work needs to be done to clean up lakes and oceans.
There’s ‘poop in the water’ at America’s dirtiest beaches. Is yours on the list?
Chris Woodyard,USA TODAY 2 hours 5 minutes agoLOS 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.
As it turns out, 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 new report released Tuesday that lists the most troubled beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states.
The study looked at the number of days in 2018 that the water had bacteria counts exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards. The Environment America Research and Policy Center report says the high counts can sicken an estimated 75,000 swimmers a year.
Most days of the year, beaches are considered safe. But researchers found bacteria counts can spike on certain days with fecal matter from people or animals as 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 co-author of the study says it shows 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 considered potentially unsafe for swimming. One, South Shore Beach, showed contamination on 93 of the 98 days in which samples were taken.
There are plenty of other examples 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. And Cupertino Park near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was unacceptable on 40 of out 60 samples.
As for the bayside of Cabrillo Beach, it registered unsafe on 85 occasions in one section and 43 in another out of 175 samples last year, the report states. It’s not the first time it came in high, having been cited by other groups for issues more than a decade ago.
The city’s recreation department, which operates the beach, referred inquiries to the California Coastal Commission, which issued a statement saying 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 the 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. All the while, it’s within sight of large ships and barges making their way into the wharves in one of the nation’s busiest ports.
Klatt, 58, of Torrance, California, said that ship traffic figures in his decision to stay out of the waters of the bayside.
“The ships that come in — I don’t know if it’s the freighters or the cruise ships — they dump their waste,” he said. He explained, however, that had no direct knowledge of such a practice, which is strictly prohibited, but just that he had “heard” it was the case. Rumor or not, it’s enough to keep him out of the bay and on the side facing the ocean for his daily routine, swimming back and forth along the coastline.
Others beachgoers weren’t as concerned. On a sunny Sunday in which 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 “smells like petroleum,” he explained.
And Drew Martin, 31, who lives nearby in San Pedro, said that overall, he thought the beach was pretty clean as he happily chased his 1-year-old son Owen through the sand.
When it comes to water quality, however, beaches aren’t always what they seem. In the East, septic systems can sometimes 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 also 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.
While many counties and states are good about closing beaches when pollution levels are too high, posting signs to warn beachgoers, she urges 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 added, have done a better job of capturing, recirculating or treating stormwater runoff and taken 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.
Here are the top five findings by state, according to the report:
Alabama
• Fairhope Public Beach, Baldwin (21 unsafe days, 60 samples)
• Dog River, Alba Club, Mobile (9, 36)
• Camp Beckwith, Baldwin (8, 58)
• Volanta Avenue, Baldwin (8, 36)
• Orange Street Pier, Baldwin (6, 34)
California
• Inner Cabrillo Beach, Los Angeles (85 unsafe days, 175 samples)
• Coronado Ave. Beach, Los Angeles (62, 144)
• Salt Creek Beach, Orange (46, 80)
• Molino Avenue Beach, Los Angeles (45, 130)
• 5th Place Beach, Los Angeles (44, 140)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: America’s dirtiest beaches are prone to unsafe bacteria, report shows