Beach activities are a quintessential part of Southern California’s lifestyle, but as the warmer weather of spring and summer approaches, beachgoers may be beginning to wonder, are beaches near the wildfire burn zones safe? What about outside of the burn zone?

The answer depends on what beach one is visiting, whether or not there has been recent rain and the progress made in debris clearance.

Environmental nonprofit group Heal the Bay has been conducting tests at various beaches in the burn zone since the fires began and is beginning to get results that will lead to answers and data about the safety of beaches following the fire.

“It’s not as bad as we were sort of bracing ourselves for, but there are a lot of things that are elevated and some of them do potentially pose a human health risk,” said Annelisa Moe, associate director of science and policy at Heal the Bay. “A lot of them are more about what the long-term impacts to the coastal marine life are going to be.”

So far, the group has found elevated levels of heavy metals in the water, which can affect marine life biologically, including affecting digestion and reproduction, according to Moe.

“Heavy metals also bioaccumulate, which means that they will build up in fish tissue and then when a larger animal eats that fish, it accumulates into their body while they’re also accumulating it from water,” Moe said. “It builds up as it comes up the food chain… humans are also a part of this ecosystem and we are a part of the food chain,” Moe said.

While these long-term impacts are not something that can necessarily be looked out for at the beach, Heal the Bay does have some advice for the public as the group awaits data that will bring more clarity and information regarding water safety.

Currently, the group recommends that people stay away from beaches altogether between the north side of Santa Monica State Beach and Las Flores Beach, a stretch of coast that spans from Santa Monica to part of Malibu.

Since the current in the ocean runs from north to south, “there is the potential that some of these contaminants are making their way down maybe as far as Dockweiler,” a beach in Playa Del Rey, Moe said.

The County Department of Public Health regularly recommends staying out of the water for three days following rainfall, to allow for the bacteria to return to normal levels.  With fire debris in the area, the agency recommends avoiding contact with debris, no matter where one comes across it. Dr. Nicole Quick of L.A. County Public Health says the agency is working with state partners at the water board to monitor potential impact on human health.

“As we get closer to summertime and warm weather, the active cleanup that’s taking place in both the Palisades and Eaton fire, for that matter, the goal is to get that debris cleaned up as quickly and safely as possible so that we remove the potential for that to continue to get into the ocean,” Quick said. “So as we get closer to warm weather, hopefully we will have less impact from debris, but once again we do caution people to look around them, be aware of their surroundings and if there is any fire debris to not contact that.”

County Public Health currently issued an advisory that suggests beachgoers can “recreate on the sand,” but should stay out of the water and continue to avoid debris from Santa Monica State Beach to Las Flores State Beach, due to fire impact. Many beaches in this area are not accessible to the public when Pacific Coast Highway is closed, which has happened frequently in recent months, due to the fire, rain and mudslides.

On Wednesday, March 12, L.A. County Public Works released findings from sediment tests taken from dark sediment on beaches near the Santa Monica Channel and Topanga Creek that were impacted by fire debris and ash. The samples did not contain any substances that would be classified as hazardous waste, according to the county.

The samples were taken in early February.

Laboratory tested the sediment for a wide range of substances, including asbestos, heavy metals, dioxins, pesticides and petroleum hydrocarbons.

Only minor traces were detected in limited instances, the county reported. And in those instances, those substances detected were found only in minor traces. Also, none of the levels exceeded safety thresholds.

How long should people stay away? 

The answer to this will depend partly on the amount of rainfall seen in the area and the rate that debris cleanup gets done. There is no one timeline, and experts say the best thing to do is to stay informed and up to date on advisories and water quality information.

“If we get a very wet springtime, with frequent rain events that are reintroducing fire debris, the public health guidance is going to remain the same, recommended to stay out of the ocean during any ocean advisory and avoid fire debris that’s on the sand,” Quick said.

“Especially after it rained, what we saw is that the water was very murky, it almost looked like chocolate milk. There was this persistent brown foam on top that indicated higher presence of nutrients,” Moe said of Heal the Bay’s post-rain observations.

L.A. County Public Health updates ocean advisories on their website and has a beach closure hotline for the public, which can be reached by calling 1-800-525-5662.

“We are continually reassessing based on data and what’s visually observed, but it also is going to be very dependent on weather and how much fire debris keeps making its way into the ocean,” Quick said.

Moe noted that this fire and the following impact on the beaches has been “unprecedented,” in terms of scope, but previous fires such as the fires in Lahaina, Hawaii in 2023 can be looked to as examples for impact.

“That was a very similar setting, where you had these steep canyons running directly into the ocean. Looking at those examples, this is going to be a long-term impact. In Lahaina, there were significant spikes in the contaminant runoff each time that it rained after the fires,” Moe said.

Contaminants found in soil are also making their way into the ocean at higher levels because the fire burned much of the vegetation that would have held it in place, so instead it also goes into the ocean as well.

“That’s going to be the case until we start to see some vegetation growing back and that could take a year or so,” Moe said.

What should beachgoers look for? 

Large debris, such as charred wood or metal should be avoided, but Quick says that areas with significant ash impact should also be on the public’s radar.

“When we’re talking about ash and soot that may have washed in via one of these rain events, ash can be anywhere from white to gray to black, and there is sort of a black debris coating that’s been found coastally on some of the beaches in L.A. that’s thought to be part of that fire debris as well,” Quick said.

“We have pipes and chunks of metal and boards with nails sticking out of them that are washing up on the shore and are actually sort of hidden within the wave surge, so you might not see it until the wave goes away and it could cause some physical harm there,” Moe said.

Moe suggests that anyone with pets or young children ensures that nothing from the beach is accidentally ingested.

“Right now, wear closed toed shoes. If you are going to interact with any of the debris, like if you want to do a cleanup, definitely wear gloves and a mask as well,” she said.

Heal the Bay has an ocean “report card” where beachgoers can view grades for hundreds of Southern California beaches to understand water quality information at any given time.

“There is a lot that we just don’t know and so for the next few weeks at least, just taking a few extra precautions at the beach, avoiding water and keeping your closed toed shoes on, those sort of things as an extra level of precaution is a good idea,” Moe said.