What Causes Beach Closures?

In addition to disrupting a day at the beach, water pollution poses a serious health threat to beachgoers. The pollution that causes beach closures and illness in humans comes from many different places on land, but ultimately gets into the water primarily through one of two pathways, discrete point sources and diffuse non-point sources.

Water at California Beaches Cleanest in Years

Nearly every beach in the Bay Area, and throughout the California state, had dramatically lower levels of bacteria and pollution than last year, according to an annual survey of 650 West Coast beaches by Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica environmental group.