As the weather warms up, plenty of Californians will flee the summer heat to seek relief on the state’s beaches. But not all beaches are as clean as others, with polluted water stemming from challenges like climate change, wastewater infrastructure and trash dumping. Heal the Bay just released its annual report of California’s best and worst beaches, with a sharp drop in beaches this year that got top marks from the nonprofit.
Santa Monica Pier had the worst rating this year for California beaches, an unfortunate ranking for one of the state’s top tourist destinations. It’s the 10th straight year the beach has appeared on the list and struggled with poor water quality. “Despite years of investment and remediation efforts, elevated bacteria levels continue to pose a direct public health risk for millions of beachgoers,” Heal the Bay said in a news release about the report.
2025 was wetter than 2024, which can adversely affect the state’s waterways. Impacted storm drains, which get flooded during rain and spill fecal matter and toxic materials directly into the ocean, can harm the popular beach. During storms, just 61% to 67% of California beaches received an A or B rating for the safety of their water.
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Six of the 10 worst beaches were in San Mateo County — many of these beaches show up in the list year after year due to poor circulation that can trap bad bacteria near the beaches.
Erckenbrack Park, Linda Mar Beach at San Pedro Creek, Parkside Aquatic Park, Pillar Point Harbor/Capistrano Road Beach, Pillar Point Harbor/Harbor Beach, and Marlin Park made up the list’s third through eighth spots.
FILE:: Pillar Point Harbor beach and trails.
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FILE: An aerial view of Marlin Park in Foster City, Calif.
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“No one should get sick from a weekend in our waters,” Heal the Bay CEO Tracy Quinn said in a news release. “These findings are a reminder that water quality isn’t just a report, it’s a public health issue that affects every beachgoer and river user across California.”
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The dirtiest beach, based on bacteria levels during summer dry weather, was Playa Blanca, a beach in Tijuana. The area around the U.S./Mexico border has been a hot spot for toxic water for years due to the wastewater crisis stemming from the Tijuana River, which is so bad you can see it from space.
Tijuana Slough at Tijuana River Mouth was ninth on the list of the state’s “beach bummers.” The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has declared the polluted area an emergency 22 times, and one supervisor has recently urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency. The problem is no longer isolated to just the waterways — it’s causing poor air quality that’s sickening residents.
During dry summer conditions, 91% of California beaches earned A or B grades. That should be comforting to frequent beachgoers, but a steep drop in the number of very clean beaches could be concerning for the future. Last year, 62 beaches made Heal the Bay’s “honor roll,” whereas this year that number shrank to just 21 beaches.
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FILE: Bilingual warning sign near the mouth of the Tijuana River and Pacific Ocean.
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Of the beaches that made the honor roll, eight were in Orange County, 11 were in San Diego County, one was in Los Angeles County and one was in Santa Barbara County. No beaches in Northern California made the list.
The annual report also grades the state’s rivers using a similar system. The list of the 10 worst-ranked freshwater river sites were all along the LA River, highlighting the struggles of maintaining a clean water system that traverses the state’s largest city.
The areas that received the best freshwater grades, indicating low bacteria, were all in Southern California. Several sites in the San Gabriel River watershed earned top marks, but Malibu Creek at Rock Pool had the highest grade. No Northern California freshwater sites got a top ranking.
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FILE: A lone surfer watches the sunset at Imperial Beach Pier, Calif., Aug. 22, 2016.
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The environmental nonprofit group the Surfrider Foundation also released a clean water report this week, blaming the state’s $630 billion wastewater infrastructure backlog for much of California’s dirty beaches. Imperial Beach in San Diego County had some of the highest bacteria levels, another beach suffering from Tijuana River runoff. Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica also scored poorly.
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The report found that most beaches had at least one unsafe test and that over 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage reach surface waters annually.
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Tests at two sites in Hawaii, Punaluu Beach Park on Oahu and Moloaa Stream Mouth on Kauai, found high bacteria levels 100% of the time. Big storms in March 2026 were largely to blame, the report said, another instance of climate change having a big impact on deteriorating water quality.