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Fire debris washed up on shore following heavy rains on February 18, 2025 in Malibu, California.
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Topline:
It’s been nearly six months since rains washed a whole bunch of contaminants from the Eaton and Palisades fire burn areas out to the ocean. For those worried about what that means for beach safety, experts have been running tests.
What testing showed: The levels of heavy metals and other chemicals weren’t high enough to pose health hazards to beachgoers.
Still, be careful: Avoid the sand and the water within 250 yards of ongoing debris clearing operations.
Read on … to learn what researchers tested for.
It’s been about six months since the Eaton and Palisades fires killed 30 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Since then, contamination has been a concern for nearby communities, including those along the coast.
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Six months after the fires, are LA beaches safe?
That’s because after the fires came the rains, which sent hazardous material straight from those burned sites through creeks and storm drains into the ocean.
What the tests say
Shortly after the fires, the environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay and water quality officials gathered sand and water samples from Malibu, Palisades and Santa Monica beaches over several months, testing for hazardous forever chemicals, heavy metals and benzene.
“What we can say is that based on what has been tested and what those results are, the risk appears to be low,” said Tracy Quinn, chief executive of Heal the Bay, which analyzed the samples.
While tests at one point did detect chromium in sand samples, the good news is that follow-up tests didn’t find hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen.
Quinn said additional tests are being performed out of an abundance of caution.
Quinn added: ”Based on the fact that this is an unprecedented event and there may be contaminants that we're not thinking to test for that may be present, that is sort of the best that we can do as scientists right now.”
In early April, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health lifted the ocean water quality advisory that was in place for beaches after the fires.
It’s still best to stay several hundred yards away from any sort of debris removal operation, and to avoid any fire debris you see on the beach.
The potential long term effects of heavy metals and other contaminants on coastal ecosystems still hasn’t been determined.
Careful if you're swimming near the Santa Monica Pier. Public health warnings for bacteria are frequent there.
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Problems at some beaches
Public health agencies usually test for fecal indicator bacteria and shut down beaches when levels get too high.
See alerts about water quality and which L.A. beaches you should avoid swimming at here.
