Summer is almost here! Thanks to our incredible coastline, we don’t even have to travel out of state for a great vacation on the beach. We’ve got 800 miles to choose from — but not all of them are equally clean. And that’s where Heal the Bay comes in.
The Santa Monica-based nonprofit has released its annual report card for 2024. The report includes an Honor Roll for beaches that received an A+ grade for cleanliness. It also includes a list of 10 “beach bummers,” which received F grades for high levels of contamination.
You can see a full list of beaches on the Honor Roll here. Thirty-four are in Orange County, which dominated the top ten. San Diego County was home to twelve honor roll beaches; Los Angeles County was home to seven; Ventura County was home to five; San Mateo County was home to two; and Santa Barbara and San Francisco each had one.
The Beach Bummers were:
Playa Blanca — Baja California, Mexico
Santa Monica Pier — Los Angeles County
Tijuana Slough — San Diego County
Chicken Ranch Beach at the Channel — Marin County
Linda Mar Beach — San Mateo County
Erckenbrack Park, Foster City — San Mateo County
Tijuana Slough, North of Tijuana River — San Diego
Border Field State Park at Monument Rd. — San Diego County
Imperial Beach at Seacoast Dr. — San Diego County
Pillar Point, Harbor Beach — San Mateo County
Heal the Bay relies on water quality sampling conducted by county, state and tribal agencies. The tests look for three important types of fecal indicator bacteria which are potentially harmful to swimmers: total coliform, fecal coliform (E. coli), and Enterococcus species. Based on the results, Heal the Bay assigns each beach a letter grade from A+ to F.
There’s one big caveat to keep in mind. The 2024 report pre-dates the January wildfires, which means it doesn’t account for all the wildfire runoff in Los Angeles County this year.
Read the full report here.