Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association

Can State Beach Finally Earn an A?

Editorial from Palisadian-Post, July 28, 2005

How many Fs does a project need to signal that it’s a failure? Once again, Will Rogers State Beach at Santa Monica Canyon has just received Heal the Bay’s worst grade for having bacterial levels that exceed the health criteria in the state’s protocol.
Runoff from our creeks and storm drains contains toxic heavy metals, pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons, animal waste, trash and even human sewage, which wash right into the bay. The monthly beach report card reflects the shoreline (ankle-deep) water quality data collected and assigns a letter grade to indicate the amount of fecal bacteria present.
The letter grade helps bathers determine the risk for getting sick with potential illnesses including stomach flu, ear infection, upper respiratory infection and major skin rash.
Years of failing grades at Will Rogers Beach, particularly in the wet winter months and, more recently, in the dry season, prompted the City of Los Angeles three years ago to install an expensive facility that would redirect runoff in the dry season to the Hyperion treatment plant instead of allowing it to flow directly into the bay.
Because Santa Monica Canyon is considered one of the bay's worst polluters, it was selected as one of the first sites for a low-diversion facility in 2002. In June of that year, then- Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski foresaw a great Mr. Clean facility that “will essentially eliminate all polluted water from entering the bay during the seven-month period from April through October.”
Well, here we are facing another summer of F's, and ongoing questions. How much risk are we willing to take to swim at Will Rogers? What went wrong with this low-diversion facility, and what are we going to do about it?
In 2002, runoff from Santa Monica Canyon was estimated to be four-million gallons of filthy water a day, so how much water did City engineers estimate would actually flow through the diversion catch basin? They clearly miscalculated from the beginning, as the water flowing into the diversion vault has overwhelmed the diversion pipe and continues to spill up and over the dam walls.
What is the City going to do now to contain the runoff in the catch basin and thereby lessen the amount of overflow which heads straight for the beach?
Two weeks ago, Alfredo Magallanes of the City’s Bureau of Sanitation in charge of the watershed protection division, suggested a number of modifications to the facility in an e-mail to George Wolfberg, president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. These include upsizing the pumps and removing constraints (debris) to the flow’s path. But typical of bureaucratic systems, these “suggestions” were immediately qualified by the need for more staff analyses, such as determining the exact size of the upgraded pump as well as the capacity of the electrical panel. This was supposed to happen “within a week and a half,” Magallanes said.
We think these are logical, practical solutions and should be implemented immediately. After all, we endured four months of traffic inconvenience in 2002 when this low-diversion facility was being constructed, and then another six months waiting for a missing electrical part to be shipped from out of state, followed by another two months for tests. With all that time wasted, it is ironic to think that the system was not adequate from the beginning.
Enough horsing around. Let's get the upgrading underway, let's get the system fixed, and let's start getting A's every month.

You want to hear answers?

Come to the Board meeting on August 2 in the Gallery Room at Rustic Canyon Park, 601 Latimer Road at 7 pm to hear the latest from the City's diversion project manager.