Heal the Bay reveals California's dirtiest beaches, with Santa Monica Pier at No. 2

The environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay released its annual Beach Report Card on Thursday and for the fourth year in a row, the beach at the Santa Monica Pier has made the beach bummer list -- this year as the second most polluted beach in California.
The organization's Beach Report Card ranks the most polluted and cleanest beaches in the state based on water quality tests from April 2024 to March 2025, evaluating harmful bacteria levels.
Annelisa Moe, Heal the Bay's Associate Director of Science & Policy, Water Quality said letter grades of A to F are assigned based on levels of fecal bacteria found in ocean water.
"Fecal bacteria is an indicator of the risk of getting an acute illness like an ear infection or a gastrointestinal issue," she said.
Heal the Bay is calling on the city of Santa Monica to do more to improve water quality at the pier. During a Thursday news conference at the pier, Tracy Quinn, CEO of Heal the Bay said the city must take a leadership role through funding, coordination and swift action.
"We can't stand on this beach that will be crowded with happy families this holiday weekend and not acknowledge our deep concern with the lack of progress in improving the water quality here," Quinn said.
"We acknowledge the efforts already made by the city of Santa Monica and LA County, including sand replacement, trash abatement, stormwater capture projects and the placement of bird netting, that has unfortunately already fallen into disrepair. But these efforts have not been enough."
The organization wrote on its "Beach Bummers" list that urban runoff and high levels of activities at the pier contribute to contamination.
Quinn said there should be increased water-quality monitoring, bacteria source identification, and a dedicated task force to chart a path forward.
"Together we can restore the public confidence in this beloved beach as our region prepares to be on the world stage in the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, clean water at the Santa Monica Pier must be a shared priority, and we need to start now," Quinn said.
The 10 most polluted beaches tested in summer dry weather:
Playa Blanca (Baja California) Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County) Tijuana Slough at Tijuana River Mouth (San Diego County) Chicken Ranch Beach at Channel (Marin County) Linda Mar Beach at San Pedro Creek (San Mateo County) Erckenbrack Park, Foster City (San Mateo County) Tijuana Slough, North of Tijuana River (San Diego County) 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)
Orange County topped the best beach "Honor Roll" for a second consecutive year, with 34 beaches earning top water quality rankings.
Los Angeles County has seven beaches on this year's Honor Roll. Most of these top-performing beaches are along the Palos Verdes Peninsula or Malibu.
It was also noted that tests for this report were prior to the January wildfires and do not reflect heavy metals and other fire-related contaminants that entered waters after the January wildfires.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Vogue

27 minutes ago

• Vogue

EMDR: The Therapy Treatment That Miley Cyrus Says Saved Her Life

Anxiety can hinder so much of everyday life, but there are many helpful and safe ways to cope. For Miley Cyrus, she credits a specific type of therapy that helped her with stage fright and what she says also saved her life: EMDR. 'It's so weird because it's like watching a movie in your mind, but it's different than dreaming. You're kind of more in yourself, but still in another place of consciousness that's kind of hard to describe unless you've been in that hypnotic state,' the 32-year-old singer recently said in an interview with The New York Times. EMDR, more formally known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy technique that treats trauma-related stress and other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, panic, grief, loss, and substance disorders. Developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro, PhD, in 1987, it has since been used to help adults (and even children). Cyrus goes on to explain in the interview that her therapist encouraged her to explore different points in her life that matched the anxiety she feels when she would go sing on stage. After finding herself on a mountaintop in a place where she experienced a lot of trauma, she was surrounded by nature and people—her grandma, her mom, her current boyfriend, her as a little child, and even her dog—who have brought her peace and love. When they all grabbed her hand to play Ring Around the Rosie, she came out of that vision feeling renewed. 'I've never had stage fright again,' she says. How does it work? EMDR involves reprocessing traumatic memories or stressful events using bilateral stimulation. Elizabeth Ochoa, PhD, chief psychologist at Mount Sinai-Behavioral Health Center, explains that you'll be asked to recall an emotion, an image, or words that are linked to that traumatic event while a form of bilateral stimulation is being administered by a clinician. The stimulation can include rapid eye movements, during which a person tracks the movements of a finger, ball, or some sort of stimulus with their eyes, tapping, or auditory cues. The goal, Ochoa says, is to reduce distress related to that painful memory. Who is it for? Ochao says that EMDR is perfect for those who are experiencing depression, anxiety, panic, or other emotional distress whenever a traumatic memory is triggered. If this is something that happens frequently enough over a long period of time and it starts to hinder how you live out your day to day life, she says this might be a treatment to consider. The benefits of EMDR Studies show that those who use EMDR can reap the same benefits as those who use years of psychotherapy, just in a shorter amount of time. The idea is that EMDR can help the mind recover from psychological trauma by removing mental blocks that stop the healing, similar to how the body recovers from physical trauma. 'The brain's information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes,' writes the EMDR Institute on its site. 'Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.' The downsides of EMDR EMDR can be quite triggering at first. Ochao says that uncomfortable feelings or distressing thoughts, feelings, and even dreams will emerge as you're reprocessing these traumatic events. Those who are not ready to face those painful feelings may want to look for a gentler treatment option. EMDR is not for those who have personality disorders, diagnosed mental illnesses, or severe psychiatric disorders. She adds that this treatment is not suitable for ongoing trauma that is currently happening in your present life. 'In a general sense, for EMDR to be safely utilized, the patient needs to have sufficient emotional coping skills, distress tolerance, and stability to manage the emotional distress that will emerge during treatment safely,' she says. What to Expect During a Session There are eight phases in a single EMDR session. Ochao explains that the initial phase will focus on identifying the memory that is causing all the trauma. The following phase will try to desensitize that memory, using the same bilateral stimulation techniques. Once that memory is neutralized, she says the focus will shift to instilling positive beliefs. The EMDR Institute breaks it down even further like this:

Yahoo

28 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Health insurers vow to speed approval of medical care

UnitedHealthcare , Kaiser Permanente and other major U.S. health insurers say they want to make it faster and easier for patients to obtain care. Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade association that represents the health insurance industry, announced Monday that some of its biggest members are taking steps to streamline "prior authorization" — industry jargon for the process by which health care providers obtain approval from patients' insurance carriers to deliver care. Prior authorization requests can be time-consuming for doctors, resulting in frustrating delays for patients in obtaining essential medical care. According to a survey from the American Medical Medical Association, physicians' offices spend an average of 12 hours per week seeking approval for services from insurers, administrative hurdles that critics say takes time away from providing care. As part of the new agreement, participating insurers have committed to a series of steps they say will speed up the sluggish process. That includes creating a standardized system for submitting prior authorization online, reducing the amount of claims subject to prior authorization and ramping up real-time responses to requests. Such changes are scheduled to take effect in 2026 and 2027. "The health care system remains fragmented and burdened by outdated manual processes, resulting in frustration for patients and providers alike," AHIP CEO Mike Tuffin said in a statement. "Health plans are making voluntary commitments to deliver a more seamless patient experience and enable providers to focus on patient care, while also helping to modernize the system." Shawn Martin, CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said in a statement that the insurance industry initiative is a "step in the right direction," but that the real test will be the impact it has on the experiences of patients and physicians. Dozens of insurers signed onto the commitment, including a number of state Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and some Medicare and Medicaid plans. In all, AHIP says the joint effort to improve prior authorization could benefit more than 250 million Americans. The signatories include: AmeriHealth Caritas Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue ShieldBlue Cross of IdahoBlue Cross Blue Shield of AlabamaBlue Cross Blue Shield of ArizonaBlue Cross and Blue Shield of HawaiiBlue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas CityBlue Cross and Blue Shield of LouisianaBlue Cross Blue Shield of MassachusettsBlue Cross Blue Shield of MichiganBlue Cross and Blue Shield of MinnesotaBlue Cross and Blue Shield of NebraskaBlue Cross and Blue Shield of North CarolinaBlue Cross Blue Shield of North DakotaBlue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode IslandBlue Cross Blue Shield of South CarolinaBlueCross BlueShield of TennesseeBlue Cross Blue Shield of WyomingBlue Shield of CaliforniaCapital Blue CrossCapital District Physicians' Health Plan, Inc. (CDPHP)CareFirst BlueCross BlueShieldCenteneThe Cigna GroupCVS Health AetnaElevance HealthExcellus Blue Cross Blue ShieldGeisinger Health PlanGuideWell Mutual Holding CorporationHealth Care Service CorporationHealthfirst (New York)Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of New JerseyHumana Independence Blue CrossIndependent HealthKaiser PermanenteL.A. Care Health PlanMolina HealthcareNeighborhood Health Plan of Rhode IslandPoint32HealthPremera Blue CrossRegence BlueShield, Regence BlueShield of Idaho, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, Asuris Northwest Health, BridgeSpan HealthSCAN Health PlanSummaCareUnitedHealthcare Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield Kidney dialysis industry accused of maximizing profits over patients Pentagon officials reveal new details about U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites Netanyahu reacts to U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

Bloomberg

33 minutes ago

• Bloomberg

Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Nearly Half of America's Kids

Republican lawmakers claim their proposal to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid is designed to protect the country's most vulnerable — that by focusing on work requirements, they're simply eliminating waste from the bloated program and ensuring the money goes to those who truly need it. In reality, anyone who relies on public insurance could be affected, including about 37 million kids, nearly half of all American children.