SURFING SOAPBOX: Laguna’s beaches getting good grades

As Charles Barkley says on TV, “I’ve got good news.”

California enjoyed its best dry-weather beach water quality on record in 2007-08, according to the 18th annual beach report card released today by the environmental group Heal the Bay.

Heal the Bay assigned A-to-F letter grades to 517 beaches along the California coast, based on levels of weekly bacterial pollution reported from April 2007 to March 2008.

Although no beach in Laguna was ranked in the top 10 of “beach bummers” (including the notoriously filthy Aliso Creek beach), our neighbors to the south were.

San Clemente’s Poche Beach ranked third; Dana Point’s infamous north beach, Doheney, ranked fourth. That’s two neighboring cities with beaches both ranked in the top 10 — which means in all likelihood had it been a wetter winter, there’s a decent chance Aliso might have been ranked in the top 10 as well.

“Southern California’s record low rainfall last winter led to enhanced water quality by limiting the amount of polluted urban runoff that reaches the ocean via storm drain systems,” according to Heal the Bay. A couple more beaches that may have benefited by last season’s low rainfall would be Blue Bird and Main beaches, which have major outfalls of urban runoff.

In any event, good to see we are making progress, which bring us to this week’s “thumbs up” award. We were getting a little nostalgic, as we haven’t seen the thumbs up awards in some time, but don’t fret — they’re back.

This week’s thumbs up award goes to none other than the city of Laguna Beach for outfitting our beloved marine protection officer with her own vehicle. Now all sing along with me: “hip hip hooray.” And my thumbs down award goes to all those who smoke their stinky cigarettes, (sorry, Gene) littering them on our streets and beaches, before they find their way to our ocean.

‘Till next week, enjoy the beach and do your part in keeping it clean.

Peace.

JAMES PRIBRAM is a Laguna Beach native, professional surfer and John Kelly Environmental Award winner. His websites include AlohaSchoolofSurfing and ECOWarrior Surf.com. He can be reached at Jamo@Aloha SchoolofSurfing.com