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Los Angeles County once again leads Heal the Bay's "Beach Bummers List" with seven locations out of California's top 10 most polluted beaches.
Avalon Beach on Catalina Island, is considered the state's most polluted largely due to outdated and leaking sewers, according to Heal the Bay's Annual Beach Report Card.
Other L.A. County beaches that received an F grade on cleanliness include Malibu's Puerco Beach at the Marie Canyon storm drain, Surfrider Beach at the Malibu Lagoon, Dan Blocker Beach at Solstice Creek, Escondido Beach at the creek, San Pedro's Cabrillo Beach at the harborside, and Topanga Canyon State Beach at the creek mouth.
Despite all the "Beach Bummers," L.A. County showed some improvement since last year. The water quality in summer dry weather improved 7 percent and earned 82 percent A or B grades.
L.A.'s neighboring Long Beach really cleaned up its act and "improved drastically," according to the report.
It received 93 percent A and B grades during summer dry weather season this past year. Comparatively, in 2007 it received only 12 percent A and B grades, and all testing sites at the Colorado Lagoon received an F. The lagoon now earned one A, one B and was removed from Heal the Bay's list of "Beach Bummers."
"I'm proud to see our efforts to clean our coastal waters are paying off," Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster said in a statement. "We created partnerships and implemented innovative technologies to tackle one of Southern California's biggest environmental challenges. We're not done yet, but our efforts have yielded some of our best scores ever - Long Beach should be proud of that. "
The success was attributed to identifying large pollution sources as well as cleanup efforts. Last year, Long Beach improved storm drains at Colorado Lagoon, which included the construction of a low-flow diversion system that redirects urban runoff into the sewer system and trash traps at major storm drains. The report also noted a dramatic reduction in the amount of litter in the area, up to 97 percent less along the south shoreline.
