LA28 Olympics: Long Beach Chimes In On Negative Water Quality

If water smells funky "use your best judgment" ~ Juan from the City of Long Beach Health Department.

1984 was a special year — The Apple Macintosh debuted, Kenny Loggins really leaned into himself, and most unforgettably, the City of Angels hosted the Summer Olympics.

The LA Olympics are back in 2028, and in maximum vigor. March 18 is the deadline to register for the first drop of lotto tickets to witness glory- wet, sweaty glory, three summers from present.

While a surely to be contentious scoring rubric is underway at Lowers, the 10k Open Water Swim & Sailing (Windsurfing + Kite) events will be off to the races at Belmont Shore: Long Beach''s melting pot of mom walkers, low-riders, athletic junkies, and flat out, people you didn''t expect to exist. Fear not, the neighborhood is quite beautiful < say gentrification 5 times fast >.

Long Beach, Belmont. Mmmm. There''s a Ballast Point Brewery near there, right? And a tattoo shop? One thing is for certain:

That water ain''t clean.

Long Beach is no stranger to runoff events that mark the water uninhabitable to even the locals — this last December alone, Long Beach witnessed 18,000 gallons of nail-removing sewage released from the San Gabriel River. The beaches were promptly rendered a health hazard to all recreational swimmers.

Lest we forget, the Long Beach Port sees ~2000 container vessels passing through it annually, bringing with them all the fun bacteria they picked up along the way.

To be clear. I''m not shitting on a port bringing in $300 billion worth of cargo, nor blaming urban sprawl for the LA + San Gabriel River Runoff that is oh so smelly and gross. I''m merely pointing out how much of a meme it is, that we''re going to convince some of the world''s greatest athletes to drink our famous "California Piss." Really redefines the "Golden State" doesn''t it?

Exposition aside; some substance

In an effort to uncover any implications that Long Beach might have on the Olympic Events, I spoke with an expert Disease Intervention Specialist from the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services.

Water quality is monitored across all beach sites about "3 times a week, with co-alerts Mo-Tue-Wed." If a sample Beach site comes back as high risk, then the Long Beach Health Department posts an advisory online (+ files with the Life Guards to notify the public and even close the appropriate areas).

What''s particularly interesting about this is the timing of the reports, paired with the bacteria the city is testing for.

According to m''friend Juan, the "health score" is only dependent on "E.coli levels actively present in the water, and some Coliform counts". Samples are picked up in the morning, and not reviewed until the following business day.

"We wait on average, 18-48 hours for results so [the advisory] is normally a day late!" At this point in time, swimmers would have already been affected by any heightened levels of E.coli.

So, what''s the likelihood this will happen during the LA28 Olympics?

Juan mentioned that across Lakewood, Lynwood, Bell Garden, & Carson, almost all sewage spills "..end up in a river that [can] wash up on the [recreational swimming sites], or otherwise are dumped into the San Gabriel."

"It''s hard to say one of these spills won''t happen during the olympics, I can''t predict the future. This is not something we want to highlight [to the public], but if it happens it''s part of the job [to send the necessary advisory]."

Are these tests not fully comprehensive of all fecal pathogens that may exist in the water?

From what Juan has told me, perhaps not. Irrespective, this isn''t unrecognized (or necessarily unsafe) behavior — in fact, the Olympic Committee exclusively used E.coli as the primary health indicator of the Seine River during the Summer Games in Paris.

So… is the Long Beach Health Department going to do more testing leading up to the LA28 Olympics?

According to Juan, No. The City of Long Beach, according to he, has "barely broken contact with the Olympic Committee." The City has quite a strict budget for these sorts of routine checks, and he is under strict guidelines not to expand the Department''s prerogative unless Additional Funding is provided by the Olympic Committee.

Well fuck, are the competitors shit out of luck? At the odds of mother nature and whatever the San Gabriel brings after a brief rain?

Not entirely.

Juan retains optimism. "The beaches tend to be good year round– and aesthetically it might not [always] be nice, but it IS safe."

Juan has highlighted the predictable red tape and conflict between the cities that host the Olympics, and Committee itself. Swimmers, Sailors, and tourists visiting for the competitions in Long Beach alike, realistically have nothing to worry about… so long as the San Gabriel behaves.

We joked together.

"If the water smells funky, maybe use your best judgment."