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Heal the Bay previews 2026 beach report card, flags Santa Monica Pier as recurring hotspot
Summary
Heal the Bay will release its 2026 Beach Report Card on May 20, grading 490 California beaches for April 2025–March 2026: 91% of beaches earned A/B in summer dry season, 81% in winter dry, and 61% in wet weather; Santa Monica Pier showed high, rising bacteria trends prompting targeted temporal, spatial and DNA source-tracking studies.
Heal the Bay will publish its 2026 annual Beach Report Card on May 20, providing statewide, regional and county-level grades based on BeachWatch data for the reporting year April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026.
Naomi Maurice, a water-quality data analyst at Heal the Bay, told the Coastal Beach Water Quality Worker Meeting that the nonprofit converts bacterial monitoring data into A–F grades for sites up and down the West Coast. "We graded 490 beaches," Maurice said, previewing statewide results: "91% of which received safe-to-swim A and B grades during the summer dry period" and 81% in the winter dry period, but only 61% during wet weather.
Maurice noted the three grading categories (summer dry, winter dry and wet-weather grades) are designed to reflect seasonal variation and AB 411 testing patterns. The weekly grades use the most recent 30 days of data and the annual report applies a reporting year that begins April 1 to capture the swim season and winter months.
Heal the Bay will also highlight site-specific case studies. Maurice pointed to Santa Monica Pier as a persistent problem: the site has been on Heal the Bay’s "beach bummers" list 14 of the last 20 years, and monthly average enterococcus and coliform metrics have increased since about 2020. "We're seeing monthly averages up to 14 times greater than the state standard for enterococcus," she said, and coliform indicators have at times reached 20 times the state threshold. To address the hotspot, Heal the Bay and partners have conducted hourly temporal sampling, planned spatial analyses and DNA-based source-tracking to identify likely contributors.
Maurice said the report will also include updates on transboundary pollution at the Tijuana River, post-wildfire water-quality recovery in Los Angeles, and local project evaluations such as Cowell's Beach improvements. She offered embargoed copies to interested agencies and said the river report card for inland freshwater sites in Los Angeles County will be released the same day.
The presentation underscored how community-level sampling combined with BeachWatch’s historical record helps agencies and advocates track trends, evaluate the effectiveness of infrastructure projects and prioritize investigations for persistent hotspots. Maurice invited attendees to request embargoed report copies via the chat and to contact her for follow-up.
