Seaside Lagoon Remains a Splash Hit With Families

While the city struggles to keep Seaside Lagoon open, families and friends continue to enjoy it.

Patch visited the family-friendly facility on Sunday—a few days before the city's latest response to the L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board is due—and discovered children splashing in the water as usual. Their parents told Patch they hope the lagoon stays open for a long time.

"It's totally safe for the kids here," said Rick Hankus of Manhattan Beach. "They can play in the sand. They can play in the water. They can just sit there. They can't run that far because it's fenced in."

Hankus, who was pushing his son on a swing, has been coming to the lagoon for four years.

"Even the water quality, I think, they've been really trying to keep it really clean. It seems cleaner than it used to be," Hankus said.

The lagoon almost did not open this summer due to city concerns about potential water quality fines. The city blanched when regulators said it could be subject to up to $21 billion in fines for not meeting more stringent testing standards; at minimum, the city was told the fine would be $150,000. 

The lagoon opened for business only after regional water quality regulators relaxed water testing standards and issued a temporary permit to the facility; residents had lobbied to keep the lagoon open. Since then, the city has been testing the water coming in from the harbor.

The facility adds chlorine to the water for swimming, and then removes the chlorine before pumping the water back into the harbor. At issue are the levels of total suspended solids in the water the lagoon will pump back into the harbor. 

The city is arguing that it is unfair to hold the lagoon to the tighter standards due to the high level of solids in the water coming in from the harbor. 

"We need to get a permit we can live with," Councilman Steven Diels said this week during an update on the issue at the City Council meeting.

The city response is due Aug. 31, with a hearing on the matter expected in early October. "I don't think this is going to be over for a long time," Diels said. "This is such a unique facility everyone is really struggling how to regulate it."  

For parents, it's a no-brainer issue: They want the lagoon to stay open.

Judy Morehouse has lived in Redondo Beach for 30 years and has visited the lagoon regularly. "It's a great area for the kids because it's supervised," Morehouse said. Morehouse's daughter, Vanessa, first started coming to the lagoon when she was 10. Now Vanessa is 39 and takes along her son, Taegan, 3.

"It's great for kids," Vanessa Morehouse said. "It's a contained beach area with no waves. They can go out in the shallow end and we don't have to worry."

The lagoon offers other amenities not so easily found elsewhere.

"Here you can have a barbecue on the beach," said Rafael Chavez of San Pedro.

More than 82,000 people visited the lagoon last year, according to a lagoon document. Over the last ten years, the most the lagoon drew was 101,584 people in 2003. The fewest number of people attended the lagoon in 2008: 76,578.

The facility draws crowds from all over the region, and city officials in the past have noted that visitors tend to spend money in the area while they're here. 

Observed Elizabeth Porter of Ontario: "It's very family-oriented here."