LBPOST.com: Beaches Re-Opened, But Rain Means Stay Away

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Beaches Re-Opened, But Rain Means Stay Away

by Ryan ZumMallen | Long Beach News | 10.14.09 |

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Well, we sure did need a little rain. The showers are expected to continue through tomorrow, so please drive carefully, and don't forget to turn your sprinklers off.

The City Health Officer announced yesterday that beaches from 3rd Place to Belmont Pier were determined safe after a 10,000-gallon sewage spill in South Pasadena forced them to be closed over the weekend. Spills such as these can enter the Los Angeles River and head straight into Long Beach ocean water. Bacteria levels were recently tested and determined to be within normal levels.

However, since rainstorms cause tons of trash and debris to flow down the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers and into Long Beach waters, officials advise that you stay away from ocean water until 72 hours after rainfall. See the picture below, taken after a rainstorm last January? You don't want to swim in that.

Related Stories: Sewage spill, Los Angeles River, Beach closure, San Gabriel River, Water quality

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3 Comments so far.

Nikol
Gross & sad.

beach=sewer
I hope the people that do this are held accountable. We need some sort of sewage treatment plant at the end of the river.

Joseph E
Unfortunately, "beach=sewer", it is nearly impossible to treat all the storm run-off from a river, unless we built a large dam or underground reservoir to hold the water for later. Treatment plants can only clean so much water in any one hour. Such a system would cost Billions of dollars. It would be much cheaper and better to clean up the sources of pollution up-stream. Fix leaking sewers, put in trash traps in storm drain grates, enforce anti-dumping and anti-littering laws and all that trash won't be coming down the river. For a little more money, we can restore parts of the river and creek bottoms to a more natural state so some water can recharge the groundwater instead of rushing down a concrete channel to the sea. It will look nicer, and reduce the peak flows run-off during storms. And of course, reconfiguring the breakwater will help flush beach, and give us back our waves.

Long Beach News

LBPOST.com Managing Editor Ryan ZumMallen keeps up on all the current and breaking Long Beach news.

Ryan ZumMallen has served as the managing editor of the LBPOST.com since 2007. He graduated from CSULB with a degree in Print Journalism in 2008 and is a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Long Beach. You can find him on various basketball courts around the city.

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