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By Janie B. Porter

Daily Bruin Contributor

People from all over the globe think the beaches “Baywatch” calls home are graced by crystal clear water and clean white sand.

But according to most natives and activists in the Los Angeles area, this is not the case. Southern California beaches, especially those in Los Angeles County, are subjected to record high levels of pollution – a startling fact considering Los Angeles County is home to more than 300,000 surfers.

According to non-natives, the beaches in the Santa Monica Bay do not live up to Hollywood hype.

Eva Pavlicek, a first-year undeclared student from Northern California, who is enrolled in a year-long environmental seminar and involved with CALPIRG, was disappointed to find Los Angeles beaches laden by visible signs of pollution.

“Contrary to the myth I believed coming to Southern California, beaches here are tainted by pollution,” Pavlicek said.

And there is little wonder why.

Judging by statistics, the coasts of the City of Angels may seem more like hell than heaven to visitors.

The Santa Monica Bay has been polluted with higher levels of contaminants than waters of any other urban area in the United States, according to a 1994 Harper San Francisco article.

Los Angeles waters have also been known to carry dangerously high levels of parasitic protozoal spores, and viruses such as Hepatitis A.

In effect, many surfers must take a cleanup rinse before leaving the beach and wipe their feet with a kerosene-soaked rag to rid them of tar and crude oil after surf sessions.

Members of Heal the Bay, a non-profit environmental group committed to cleaning up all of the Santa Monica Bay, are also savvy to Los Angeles County beaches’ growing pollution problem.

On the group’s monthly beach report card, Malibu’s Surfrider Beach and parts of Will Rogers Beach, Santa Monica Beach, Marina Del Ray and Cabrillo Beach received Fs for the high bacterial pollution levels in their surf zones.

Don Slaven, executive board member of the Huntington/Seal Beach Surfrider Chapter, said pollution at Malibu is the fault of the septic tanks of many older homes in the area. Septic tanks allegedly permeate the ground with higher levels of polluted material than more modern plumbing systems.

Slaven also blamed Malibu’s pollution problem on a lack of citizen responsibility.

He estimated that 200 gallons of liquid waste per person per day are taken from households, through gutters and treatment plants, to the ocean. This is based on citizens’ average daily use of water from activities that include showering, flushing toilets and washing dishes.

“To get to ballpark figures, you simply multiply the population of a county by 200 gallons of water use per day, and you have a general idea of the massive amount of water used and wasted daily,” Slaven said.

According to the County of Los Angeles, the county’s population is almost 10 million – which may mean that 2 billion gallons of water are disposed daily.

But high pollution levels may not be entirely the fault of Angelenos.

Members of the Malibu Surfrider Foundation Chapter have discovered that the Malibu Creek Watershed, a waterway that runs from inland Los Angeles county to Malibu Beach, is polluted by urban runoff from development along the watershed.

“Las Virgenes Municipal Water District operates a water treatment plant that sits on the creek,” said Jeff Duclos, co-chairman of the Malibu Surfrider Chapter and UCLA Extension instructor.

“Think of it as a daily flush, with everything in the creek washed into the lagoon and eventually into the surf zone,” he continued.

Duclos also said that the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District is allowed to dump 16 million gallons of treated water per day into the creek.

Yet Norm Buehring, director of Resource Conservation for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District reported that they actually dump less than 10 million gallons per day into the creek, and they are only allowed to do so between April and November.

Arlene Post, spokeswoman for the Las Virgenes treatment facility, denied that any polluted water from the facility is released into the Malibu Creek Watershed.

She said the water released by the Las Virgenes facility is approved by the Department of Health as being safe for full body contact.

“You can swim in the (Malibu Creek Watershed) water,” she said.

Still, Grant Neie, a surfer and Malibu Surfrider volunteer, believes that the damage done by Las Virgenes Municipal Water District to the California coast is undisputable.

“Last year, as soon as the sewage treatment plant stopped releasing water into the upland Malibu Creek Watershed, the area started receiving a grade A according to Heal the Bay and the County Department of Health Services,” he said. “When the treated sewage is being released, the grade is consistently an F. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to understand the connection.”

Still, Buehring countered allegations made by the Surfrider Foundation.

“If you put it (water that the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District releases into the creek) in a glass, it would be clear,” he said.

Buehring cited other pollution sources along the creek which include bird and horse droppings, illegal area camping and regional septic seepage.

“Our water is not part of that pollution,” he said.

In line with Buehring’s comments, Peggy Hamner of UCLA’s Marine Science Center said that treatment plants have actually helped improve the cleanliness of Los Angeles waters. She cited the Hyperion Treatment Plant of El Segundo as helping the pollution problem of the Santa Monica Bay.

“The major reason cleanliness of the beaches has improved is sewage treatment. The Hyperion Treatment Plant is one of the most advanced in the world,” she said.

But to many, resolution of Los Angeles’s pollution problem still does not seem likely in the near future.

Neie said environmental concerns do not motivate dumping facilities to listen to their environmental consciences.

“Some sewage plants just release raw sewage and pay the fine since it’s cheaper than treatment and they cannot handle the volume that the increasing population generates,” he said.

In addition to outfall from treatment plants, high quantities of polluted water can be drained into the ocean during periods of heavy rainfall.

The Surfrider Foundation suggests that beachgoers not surf or swim near locations of outfall-sewer pipes, drains, and creeks – or within 72 hours of a storm.

Surfers or not, volunteers are beginning to get the public and treatment plants to clean up their acts.

The Stream Team, a volunteer group supported by Heal the Bay, aims at locating degraded habitats and pollution sources in the Malibu Creek Watershed.

At least one weekend a month, Stream Team volunteers look for and make record of unstable stream banks, artificial stream bank modifications, large patches of exotic or invasive vegetation, possible barriers to fish passage and illegal dump sites.

The Surfrider Foundation has also made efforts toward a cleaner California coast through programs such as Blue Water Task Force, Beachscape, Clean Water, and Surf Site Stewardship.

But environmental organizations cannot clean up Los Angeles beaches alone. They recommend that citizens use household water judiciously: not flush trash down toilets, dispose of toxins responsibly, and become educated about the importance of conserving beaches’ natural resources.

“We have the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, Sierra Club, Save Ballona, Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Coast Keepers. We have educated citizens, but we also have very powerful developers,” Slaven said.

“There are over 3,500 species sharing the California coast,” he added, “but humans are the only ones destroying it.”

Visit www.healthebay.org and www.surfrider.org for information on getting involved in local environmental issues.