L.A. River Water Quality Sampling || Photo by: Heal the Bay
It's easy to get caught up in verdant dreams of the Los Angeles River's future, but increased open space and recreational opportunities in park poor Los Angeles is just one of the many considerations Angelenos should be looking at: water quality should also be one of them.
In the general understanding of revitalization, water quality gets let out of the conversation frequently, said Dr. Katherine Pease of Heal the Bay.
Heal the Bay is supportive of the river's revitalization efforts, but it says that it should also incorporate specific and quantifiable measures to enhance water quality, especially in light of the increased recreational use of the river.
The non-profit has released the result of its first-ever Los Angeles River monitoring report to help LA river enthusiasts make informed decisions when it comes to river recreation.
Heal the Bay has been weighing on Los Angeles River issues for many years because it understands that whatever outcomes happen on the rivers and creeks affects what happens in the oceans. What we do in our watershed is all related to the health of our creeks, rivers as well as oceans, said Pease, You can't have one without the other.
Dr. Katherine Pease || Photo by: Heal the Bay
Through this report, the non-profit is working to increase awareness of water quality in the river, a subject that doesn't get as much media play as say its rewilding or regreening.
The consistent sidelining of water quality may be why Frank Gehry has insisted he isn't going to add any architectural landmarks on the river, but instead study it as a kind of machine that treats polluted storm water. I said I would only do it on the condition that they approached it as a water-reclamation project, to deal with all the water issues first. Gehry told the Los Angeles Times.
The organization has reason for its caution. Its recently released water quality study showed that popular recreational areas on the Los Angeles River-the Sepulveda Basin downstream of Burbank Boulevard, Rattlesnake Park downstream of Fletcher Drive, and Steelhead Park at Oros Street-had high bacteria levels that would increase the risk for ear infections, respiratory illnesses and gastrointestinal illnesses for people who come in contact with the water.
For example, samples for Enterococcus exceeded federal standards 100% of the time at Rattlesnake Park and Steelhead Park and 50% of the time in Sepulveda Basin. The Rattlesnake Park site also suffered from a 67% exceedance rate for E. coli. The figures weren't as bad at Sepulveda Basin, which exceeded 20% of the time and Steelhead Park, which exceeded 9% of the time. These bacteria Heal the Bay tested for are well-known indicators of fecal matter in the water.
In comparison, Heal the Bays two monitoring sites in Malibu Creek State Park showed better results. Exceedance rates for Enterococcus at Rock Pool were 22% in 2014 and 7% in 2015, and at Las Virgenes Creek, 61% in 2014 and 79% in 2015. Exceedance rates for E. coli at Rock Pool were 11% in 2014 and 0% in 2015, and at Las Virgenes Creek, 28% in 2014 and 36% in 2015.
The LA river's disturbing water quality isn't because of the additional foot traffic in the river, clarifies Pease. The Los Angeles River has been known to have bacteria problems even before they allowed recreation.
The most likely culprits to the river's plight, according to Heal the Bay, are urban runoff, leaks and flows from wastewater collection systems, and failing septic systems. In fact, regulars on the river may just be as helpful to the river's water quality by reporting any storm drains that always seem to be running or any sort of runoff that are cause for concern. Heal the Bay's website provides a comprehensive list of agencies to alert during these cases.
Trash clogging drains along the L.A. River || Photo by: Charles Wagner/Flickr/Creative Commons License
Contact with Los Angeles River water won't make residents mutants, no, but Heal the Bay does ask people to take precautions such as avoiding hand-to-face water contact, rinsing off after any water contact, and not to go in the river with an open wound.
The report's results are by no means a deterrent to keep people off the river, but to arm future LA river visitors with more information, much like its 25-year old Beach Report Card has given the public the ability to make an informed decision about whether to go into beach waters on the West Coast.
We want to use this monitoring to spur positive change and to think about how we can make things better on faster timelines, said Pease.
The Los Angeles River needs the help it can get. For centuries, the river has not enjoyed the bucolic image other waterways have. In fact, in his book, The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death and Possible Rebirth Blake Gumprecht writes, The destruction of the river had begun half a century before the first concrete was poured...when the river ... began to be viewed not as a giver of life or a thing of beauty, but as a dumping ground--for horse carcasses, petroleum waste, and the citys garbage.
Raw sewage pours into the L.A. River, 1955 || Photo by: Bill Watson/Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Even in the early days of Los Angeles, its river has been perceived as unsightly. Gumprecht recounts many instances as proof. In 1887, when 80 horses were killed in a stable fire, their carcasses were dumped in the riverbed just south of Seventh Street. In 1910, Joseph Mesmer, a prominent local merchant called the river the most unsightly sight in the city. About the same time, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Park Commissioners while suggesting to regulate quarrying on the river bed and curb dumping, commented, It would be expensive and difficult
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
L.A. River Water Quality Sampling || Photo by: Heal the Bay 
