Photo: TM Kruser // Unsplash
Heal the Bay’s annual report card is often highlighted by its “Beach Bummer List,” California’s most polluted beaches. While that puts an obvious focus on negative grades and challenges with things like urban runoff and poor water quality, it’s also become a useful tool for anybody who regularly finds themselves in the Pacific Ocean. First, it identifies areas worth avoiding altogether or at specific times throughout the year. And second, it helps local officials target specific pollution risks at beaches in need of some freshening up.
Their water quality reports are pretty straightforward with traditional A through F grades like you’d get on a report card. Within those grades, of course, lie details of things like fecal matter and significant weather events that may have contributed to high pollution levels and so on.
For example, an atmospheric river that rolled through Southern California in early February 2024 dumped more than seven inches of rain on downtown Los Angeles in just two days. It was the third-highest rainfall total for that span since 1877, bringing flooding, mudslides, and power outages across the area. Naturally, all of that runoff headed straight for the Santa Monica Bay and its impact on water quality was greater than a typical wet-season storm.
As for the list itself, nine of California’s cleanest beaches are within Orange County, with San Diego’s Point Loma Lighthouse as the only other beach in the state to crack the top 10 outside of the OC.
These are California’s ‘honor roll’ beaches:
1. Dana Point Harbor Fuel Dock (Orange County)
2. Huntington Harbor, Seagate Lagoon (Orange County)
3. Huntington Harbor, Trinidad Lane Beach (Orange County)
4. Newport Bay, Promontory Point (Orange County)
5. Dana Point, South Capistrano Bay Community Beach (Orange County)
6. Riviera Beach (Orange County)
7. Emerald Bay Beach (Orange County)
8. Marine Science Institute Beach (Orange County)
9. Salt Creek Beach (Orange County)
10. Point Loma Lighthouse (San Diego County)
“Southern California beaches (Santa Barbara to San Diego counties) got 90 percent A or B grades in the summer. NorCal beaches (Del Norte to Marin counties) also earned 90 percent A or B summer grades, while Central California beaches (San Francisco to San Luis Obispo counties) notched 84 percent A or B marks. But surfers and other year-round ocean-goers weren’t as fortunate,” they pointed out. “During the dry winter season (Nov. 2023-March 2024), only 66 percent of the 501 beaches monitored in California received overall A or B grades, well below the state’s 10-year winter average.”
As for HTB’s Beach Bummer list, the dirtiest in California can mostly be found near San Diego and in Los Angeles County.
These are California’s dirtiest beaches:
1. Tijuana River Mouth (San Diego County)
2. Playa Blanca (Baja California, Mexico)
3. Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County)
4. Tijuana Slough (San Diego County)
5. Linda Mar Beach (San Mateo County)
6. Lakeshore Park (San Mateo County)
7. Imperial Beach at Seacoast Drive (San Diego County)
8. Border Field State Park (San Diego County)
9. Marina del Rey Mother’s Beach at Lifeguard Tower (Los Angeles County)
You can study the full report card here.
