The City of Redondo Beach Water Quality Task Force was formed in response to serious water quality issues surrounding the City’s beaches, harbor and pier. With City leaders taking a facilitative role, this volunteer community stakeholder group was empowered to gain a better understanding of the causes of the water quality issues; encouraged to bring attention to the issues from experts and academics in the field; and charged with formulating a plan to mitigate the threat to our harbor and beaches. A year later, with the list of the 33 recommended projects in hand, the City is benefitting from regional water quality alliances, a pilot water quality project through the University of California, and grant funding to implement water quality improvement projects. In addition, the WQTF has become a moded for addressing other priority community concerns.

The summer of 2005 found residents, visitors, local businesses, and marine-life terrorized by recurring instances of “red tide” that caused tons of fish to suddenly die and decompose in the Harbor area. A month earlier, the City had received highly publicized failing water quality grades at the Pier from environmental groups testing water quality at the beaches near the municipal pier. Revenue losses from declining business in the harbor area were estimated as high as 25 percent per occurrence of the red tide. The City was simmering on the verge of a growing environmental and public relations crisis.

As City Officials and staff pressed for solutions, it quickly became evident that little was known about the causes of these water quality issues, let alone how to prevent them. Furthermore, it seemed likely that factors outside the City’s boundaries and ability to control were contributing to the poor ocean water quality. The issues were far beyond the City’s expertise to resolve, yet there was no time to waste: pending recurrence of the red tide conditions created an urgent need for answers.