Photo: Jeremy Bishop // Unsplash
Los Angeles County officials are asking the public to stay away from several beaches due to high levels of bacteria. The new advisory adds to a string of warnings from the L.A. Public Health Department over the past six weeks and, once again, includes Malibu’s popular Surfrider Beach.
The department’s notices haven’t directly attributed the high bacteria levels to a May 8 sewage spill that closed off beaches from Dockweiler to Venice but some of the affected beaches in a previous warning were near that Ballona Creek spill. The spill was said to include 14,400 gallons of untreated wastewater into Santa Monica Bay and officials advised the public to steer clear of the water in those areas until samples started showing a return to lower contamination levels.
Topanga Canyon Beach in Malibu, Santa Monica Pier, the lagoon at Surfrider Beach, and Mother’s Beach in Marina Del Rey were all on a previous advisory before the Memorial Day holiday and appeared in a Tuesday notice from the county as well. In its latest update, the department says warnings will stay in effect until further notice. Officials say people who enter the ocean during this period could become ill, especially children and elderly, as well as those who are immunocompromised.
The public is asked to stay out of the water at of these L.A. County beaches:
- Santa Monica Canyon Creek at Will Rogers State Beach near Will Rogers Tower 18 – 100 yards up and down the coast from the creek
- Topanga Canyon Beach in Malibu – 100 yards up and down the coast from the lagoon
- Sweetwater Canyon Storm Drain at Carbon Canyon Beach – the entire swim area
- Mothers Beach in Marina Del Rey – the entire swim area
- Malibu Lagoon at Surfrider Beach – 100 yards up and down the coast from the public restrooms
- Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica – 100 yards up and down the coast from the pier
- Trancas Creek at Zuma Beach – 100 yards up and down the coast from the creek
- Malibu Pier in Malibu – 100 yards up and down the coast from the pier
The warnings haven’t done much to stifle crowds at First Point, but that shouldn’t be surprising.
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