Get into the water

Orange County healthy agency officials tell us to stay high and dry

for 72 hours after a storm. They couldn’t be more right, according to

Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay.

The environmental group released its annual grades for all of

Southern California’s beaches. Huntington Beach fared well -- so long

as the weather’s dry. During and after rainfall, most beaches

everywhere failed. Huntington Beach was no exception.

There have always been a couple of beaches that received F’s for

water quality in the rainy season. But this year, all eight beaches

monitored -- every single city and state beach in Huntington --

earned an F in the rainy season. Sure, most got A’s for the dry

season, and luckily, that is tourist and beach season here, but the

F’s are disturbing nonetheless.

Grades are assigned based on health effects to swimmers and

surfers. Plainly speaking, it is unhealthy to go in the water in the

winter in Surf City. So the hundreds of surfers, bodyboarders and

bodysurfers who enjoy the beach year-round are subjected to unhealthy

doses of bacteria and viruses. They may be well aware of the risk,

but that makes it no more acceptable.

Surf City’s beaches have undeservedly gotten an bad rap, and there

were few surprises in the report, such as data indicating that the

water off the Santa Ana River mouth is safe during the dry season.

Heal the Bay’s figures show that people shouldn’t be afraid to

flock to most of Huntington’s beaches during the dry months,

including the warmer months that began this month. Progress has been

made, but the data from the wet months really show that runoff is

still a problem.

Huntington Beach officials must continue to work on preventing

runoff -- whether from inland cities or Surf City itself -- from

entering the ocean.

Huntington leads the charge in combating runoff, but the ocean is

our chief asset and must be protected.

It is not just the city’s problem or the county’s problem. It is

not just Huntington Beach’s problem. It is everyone’s problem and it

must be addressed. Runoff is caused by people washing cars, watering

lawns and littering. Everyone needs to be aware and care.