Long Beach Scores Top Marks for Water Quality

PRESS RELEASE

Long Beach, CA - The City of Long Beach has received excellent recreational water quality grades from Heal the Bay for 2021-2022, with 100% percent of its beaches receiving A or B grades for the dry summer months, according to the Annual Beach Report Card that was released on June 22, 2022. Long Beach has seen sustained improvements in water quality over the past decade.

"We've worked hard to make our beaches cleaner and safer - and it's paid off with these high marks from Heal the Bay," said Mayor Robert Garcia.

City beaches received 11 A grades and four Bs for the dry summer season, April through October. Alamitos Bay, located at Bayshore and the Second Street Bridge, received an A+ grade. The State Health and Safety Code, known as AB 411, requires testing of recreational waters during this important time period when most people go to the beach and enjoy the water. Long Beach also received A or B grades for five beaches during the dry winter months.

The Beach Report Card was established 30 years ago to maintain a safe beach environment for the public by providing reliable and easy-to-understand analyses of beach water quality and advocating for water quality policies and improvement projects. As part of the study, water samples are retrieved from beaches and analyzed for bacteria and other pollutants, then receive grades A to F based on the levels found in the samples. The better the grade a beach receives, the lower the risk of illness to ocean users.

Long Beach has approximately seven miles of public beach and bays, typically attracting thousands of residents and visitors throughout the year. In order to protect the safety of the public, residents and visitors, water samples are collected three times a week and tested routinely by the Health Department's Environmental Health Water Quality Monitoring Program to monitor bacterial levels.

For current information on water quality in Long Beach, visit https://bitly.com/LBWaterQuality. The Heal the Bay 2021-22 Beach Report Card is available at healthebay.org.

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