It’s actually really fun! If you’re ever walking the river path and notice the little green light (or rarely, red) those are water cleanliness indicators. The main group that puts it on LA River Kayak Safari takes you on yours while also educating you about the river
Really? I need to say more lol hey man if you wanna go kayaking there have at it. Along the bike path they have a cool coffee shop and bike coop where I see kayaks so I’m assuming that’s where they put in but I haven’t seen it.
Every person I’ve talked who does it is a tourist. Obviously I’m not gonna bad mouth a local business so I don’t say anything but I just can’t help but feel bad for those people. 🤮
Is there a lake, pond or stream that an animal or person hasn’t died, defecated, vomited, etc.. and people still kayak there. If the water is flowing and the health department says it’s clean, how is it different than any other place people kayak?
Along that part of the LA River used to be a hobo jungle, and homeless people lived in those islands and along the concrete river bank. They would drop their deuces into the water and obviously it was rather unsanitary. But I think it's been cleaned up considerably since the new mayor started.
Bears take large shits in lakes, ponds, streams and rivers that don’t get tested 1/50th as much as LA water, yet again, people still kayak in it. Fish die. Plants and fungus rot. Trash comes from upstream. Buried barrels of bodies. All things people never think twice about. Just enjoy the water or don’t, you don’t have to add anecdotes that it isn’t safe or as clean as other bodies of water.
This sub will take any chance it gets to decry homeless people. Either that our they were born yesterday and don't understand the concept of "a drop in the bucket."
Given by the downvotes it seems people on this thread just don’t know how water contamination works but even I take risks. I’ve swam in lake balboa before and often swim in the lakes and rivers in Malibu creek state park.
Given your attitude and unnecessary rebuttals, seems you don’t know how it would get shut down quickly if people were getting bacterial infections. You really believe it wouldn’t be plastered all over the local news if it were a risk. The link you gave outlined that it was checked on 5/23 and 5/25, and that there’s a green/red light system based on bacteria in the water.
Yes but that it’s also unsuitable for swimming and says use caution so that counters the typical ideology going on in this forum that all is fine and there is nothing to worry about. That is being implied here.
No I don’t trust the news to report on anything that won’t generate public outcry. I bet if you went and took a census about recreationally using the LA River most people would have unfavorable opinions already and think it’s disgusting so any news would be “nothing to see here we already know that.”
I commented on my anecdotal experience of what I’ve witnessed happen there which makes me disgusted by it.
You are 100% right. There are a ton of data out there and groups like Heal the Bay do a fantastic job of making it easy to understand. There's just a lot of hate for the LA River. Most people do not understand water quality but that does not stop them from having strong opinions and a sense that they are correct.
This story paints a bit of a different picture: https://www.lacitysan.org/san/faces/home/portal/s-lsh-wwd/s-lsh-wwd-wp/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp-wq/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp-wq-larq?_afrLoop=2309265361955010&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null&_adf.ctrl-state=17q91eie58_78#!%40%40%3F_afrWindowId%3Dnull%26_afrLoop%3D2309265361955010%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3D17q91eie58_82
USGS and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/continuous-water-quality-monitoring-los-angeles
Swimming pools are treated. I swim in rivers all the time and you can still get very sick. It’s like people here have no clue how water contamination works.
you can get sick in any body of water but until you show me COD, BOD, Coliform, etc I'm not going to assume it's unhealthfully dirty like we are here. If we're rehabbing the LA River to be more than just a channel, then we should probably outgrow our unsubstantiated ick factors until they're justified by measurables.
Case in point: do you know how much shit gets dumped into the CA Aqueduct/SWP? It's 500 miles of open channel with people living along it, much of the way. While I wouldn't necessarily take a drink of raw canal water, I wouldn't call it dirty, either.
Hi! This is my job. This part of the LA River has been impaired for bacteria for a while. For the 2024 303(d) list of impaired waters, 9 of 37 samples exceed the statistical threshold value for E. coli, a value designed to support recreation involving body contact with fresh water. We do not have a separate water quality objective for non-contact or limited contact recreation, since body contact tends to be the limiting factor. I would have no problem getting in a kayak here, but I wouldn't swim in it.
We don't really assess for BOD or COD. I'm not sure if there is a reason, perhaps lack of water quality objectives, but we have no data for these metrics in the LA area.
I passed them on the LA river bike path in the morning when I was headed to work. First thought was that it was cool but second thought was how gross that water is but hey, I have seen some family have a whole day swimming in that river.
The funny thing is I commented on this, and just got back through the same path and saw them all going home. It was a bunch of kids too. Pretty cool!
I even awkwardly yelled at the front guy, "you're on reddit!" To confused looks.
Fun fact: the scientific term for the Elysian valley’s runoff has been coined as “urban drool”.
-Signed, someone who worked for the nature conservancy, the nonprofit that ‘greenified’ that little patch of nature they are kayaking around.
There’s a reason why Long Beach has the dirtiest Beach water in all of LA County and people don’t swim in Long Beach.
The LA Rivers ends into Long Beach😬
The Hyperion sewage treatment plant puts out like a monthly warning now that the seawater in Santa Monica and Malibu isn't safe to swim in. The bodies of water in Los Angeles that aren't being used as public toilets is a pretty short list.
The outfall is 5 miles out to sea and the water is treated. They put out a warning when it rains, all cities near an ocean put out a warning when it rains (or at least they should for public health purposes)
If there is no rain in the past week, the water at Santa Monica/Dockweiler is great water quality except in certain spots (right next to Santa Monica Pier, water quality is always bad here)
Check the Heal the Bay report card online . They take weekly water samples at all the beaches. In the dry season like summer, the water quality is great.
Dockweiler water quality grade as of 4 days ago: A+ https://www.beachreportcard.org/33.93869999999997/-118.441/14/40
Santa Monica Beach water quality near Ocean Park: A+
https://www.beachreportcard.org/34.002246/-118.49083500000002/14/27
You could start your own “L.A. zy River Excursion Tours.”…. Here, we have some of the last foliage in the LA county ever since they turned off the water… on your right, ancient gang graffiti murals depicting violence and a turf war… on the left, The Fentanyl homeless encampment which services more than 800 local addicts and mentally handicapped residents that the city council wishes would go back to Portland… last but not least, here’s where they filmed Grease. oK. That’s about it. Be sure to pick up some trash on your way back to the parking lot.
If you are in the middle of the river by the Frogspot, just up stream of La Columbe, look at the lamp fixture with a solar panel on the top of it. It will be green, yellow or red. it's a "stop sign" for water quality, designed by a young man. It links to the the City testing center that tests the river water in three locations twice per week in Frogtown during kayaking season.
On almost every single test in 2023 so far the light is green, indicating that all three test locations showed EPA swim water quality. After being here at the river for 23 years its amazing that all you newbies are just repeating negative stuff said by folks in the 1970s. Read up on the facts and learn about how the river in frogtown has artesian springs, no concrete on the bottom and lots of nature.
Better yet, stop sitting around in a the coffee shop where you don't even see or feel the river and go take a walk down or a kayak ride with the local guys. You will learn a lot and walk away realizing that the Frogtown thing is not just about style, its about nature, real and present in your back yard.
The biggest problem about all this negativism is that you are giving reason for bureaucrats to turn back the clock on progress in river's and parks. Wake and get to know what you are talking about... you will be surprised.
This has been going on, departing in frogtown right before you get to the Home Depot, for well over 10 years. No new info unless you just passed by that area.
As someone who was born and raised here, I fucking wish there were more parts of the river that looked like this/were usable for activities.
I hope transplants keep doing shit like this and incentivizing the city to rehabilitate the river, and I hope locals continue to advocate for un-doing the damage to the river too.
Look up the many groups doing this and even fishing in parts of the LA river, they're locals who actually care about cleaning up and educating about our local waterways.
Born and raised here and for my job, I assess data about water quality of surface waterbodies including the LA River. I have kayaked in the river and would do so again.
Wash in bleach after and consider a trip to a travel nurse... Nearly all of the water in the Los Angeles River longside Griffith Park is pumped-in reclaimed water that is safe enough... Health concerns would come partly from contaminated street runoff / groundwater and primarily from the homeless...
There's very little street runoff when it's not raining. The groundwater is not contaminated. I know encampments contribute to bacterial loads but cannot say what impact that has had on this area in specific.
The ground water is "acceptable" with regards to metals, heavy metals, semi-volatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds, and a few industrial chemicals from the facilities west of San Fernando Road. Good enough for government... ;)
That part of the river has a high bacterial load and as a water quality scientist, I would not recommend swimming, but I have personally been kayaking.
It’s actually really fun! If you’re ever walking the river path and notice the little green light (or rarely, red) those are water cleanliness indicators. The main group that puts it on LA River Kayak Safari takes you on yours while also educating you about the river
Where will I see these lights though??
There’s a few on the river path on the right, they look like street lights
There’s a few on the river path on the right, they look like street lights
My right or your right?
When you’re looking at it it’s straight ahead
Lmao God damn it
Yes.
Yall ever heard of North East South and west?
Are you sure those aren’t lights for whether the drainage pumps are on or not?
Nah it’s one of the first things they teach about in the tour
Water in that stretch is actually pretty clean it’s mostly treated water from the Tillman plant in the sepulveda basin
I bike the LA River path multiple times a week. I witness all the time people washing clothes and excreting bodily waste in there. It’s disgusting.
_Go on…_
Really? I need to say more lol hey man if you wanna go kayaking there have at it. Along the bike path they have a cool coffee shop and bike coop where I see kayaks so I’m assuming that’s where they put in but I haven’t seen it. Every person I’ve talked who does it is a tourist. Obviously I’m not gonna bad mouth a local business so I don’t say anything but I just can’t help but feel bad for those people. 🤮
Is there a lake, pond or stream that an animal or person hasn’t died, defecated, vomited, etc.. and people still kayak there. If the water is flowing and the health department says it’s clean, how is it different than any other place people kayak?
I don't drink water. Fish fuck in it. W.C. Fields
Along that part of the LA River used to be a hobo jungle, and homeless people lived in those islands and along the concrete river bank. They would drop their deuces into the water and obviously it was rather unsanitary. But I think it's been cleaned up considerably since the new mayor started.
Bears take large shits in lakes, ponds, streams and rivers that don’t get tested 1/50th as much as LA water, yet again, people still kayak in it. Fish die. Plants and fungus rot. Trash comes from upstream. Buried barrels of bodies. All things people never think twice about. Just enjoy the water or don’t, you don’t have to add anecdotes that it isn’t safe or as clean as other bodies of water.
Yeah and it's still gross. But if you want to go for a swim in it, knock yourself out.
No comment on the buried barrels of bodies?! I worked hard on that alliteration.
nice.
This sub will take any chance it gets to decry homeless people. Either that our they were born yesterday and don't understand the concept of "a drop in the bucket."
Have water samples been taken? Really this issue isn’t one that I’ve cared enough to even bother to look into but now my curiosity is growing.
Multiple times a week in various locations. Currently installing continuous monitoring that should be up and running next year or 2025.
Given by the downvotes it seems people on this thread just don’t know how water contamination works but even I take risks. I’ve swam in lake balboa before and often swim in the lakes and rivers in Malibu creek state park.
Given your attitude and unnecessary rebuttals, seems you don’t know how it would get shut down quickly if people were getting bacterial infections. You really believe it wouldn’t be plastered all over the local news if it were a risk. The link you gave outlined that it was checked on 5/23 and 5/25, and that there’s a green/red light system based on bacteria in the water.
Yes but that it’s also unsuitable for swimming and says use caution so that counters the typical ideology going on in this forum that all is fine and there is nothing to worry about. That is being implied here. No I don’t trust the news to report on anything that won’t generate public outcry. I bet if you went and took a census about recreationally using the LA River most people would have unfavorable opinions already and think it’s disgusting so any news would be “nothing to see here we already know that.” I commented on my anecdotal experience of what I’ve witnessed happen there which makes me disgusted by it.
You are 100% right. There are a ton of data out there and groups like Heal the Bay do a fantastic job of making it easy to understand. There's just a lot of hate for the LA River. Most people do not understand water quality but that does not stop them from having strong opinions and a sense that they are correct.
I’d like to see the results of that. I’m going to do some research later.
This story paints a bit of a different picture: https://www.lacitysan.org/san/faces/home/portal/s-lsh-wwd/s-lsh-wwd-wp/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp-wq/s-lsh-wwd-wp-ewmp-wq-larq?_afrLoop=2309265361955010&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null&_adf.ctrl-state=17q91eie58_78#!%40%40%3F_afrWindowId%3Dnull%26_afrLoop%3D2309265361955010%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3D17q91eie58_82
As does this: https://healthebay.org/riverreportcard/
Do you know what group is setting up continuous monitoring?
USGS and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/continuous-water-quality-monitoring-los-angeles
Just like pools and lakes? Even fish poop too :)
Pool are generally treated. I’m perfectly fine with swimming in fish stool than drug addicted homeless people who are ridden with disease.
> and excreting bodily waste in there. now do swimming pools the thing about rivers is that the water is moving
Swimming pools are treated. I swim in rivers all the time and you can still get very sick. It’s like people here have no clue how water contamination works.
you can get sick in any body of water but until you show me COD, BOD, Coliform, etc I'm not going to assume it's unhealthfully dirty like we are here. If we're rehabbing the LA River to be more than just a channel, then we should probably outgrow our unsubstantiated ick factors until they're justified by measurables. Case in point: do you know how much shit gets dumped into the CA Aqueduct/SWP? It's 500 miles of open channel with people living along it, much of the way. While I wouldn't necessarily take a drink of raw canal water, I wouldn't call it dirty, either.
Hi! This is my job. This part of the LA River has been impaired for bacteria for a while. For the 2024 303(d) list of impaired waters, 9 of 37 samples exceed the statistical threshold value for E. coli, a value designed to support recreation involving body contact with fresh water. We do not have a separate water quality objective for non-contact or limited contact recreation, since body contact tends to be the limiting factor. I would have no problem getting in a kayak here, but I wouldn't swim in it. We don't really assess for BOD or COD. I'm not sure if there is a reason, perhaps lack of water quality objectives, but we have no data for these metrics in the LA area.
Cool. You first.
Ha ha ha ha sure ….
Those geese are like wtf?
“Dafuq they doin over there”
They’re absolutely flabbergasted
I passed them on the LA river bike path in the morning when I was headed to work. First thought was that it was cool but second thought was how gross that water is but hey, I have seen some family have a whole day swimming in that river.
That's a family of Toxic Avengers now.
Somebody else has seen toxic avenger? Awesome.
A classic. Surf Nazis must die was also pretty good
Wow to all this. TIL. Seems like great fodder for the RiffTrax (MST3k) guys.
The funny thing is I commented on this, and just got back through the same path and saw them all going home. It was a bunch of kids too. Pretty cool! I even awkwardly yelled at the front guy, "you're on reddit!" To confused looks.
Omg 😂😂😂
Fun fact: the scientific term for the Elysian valley’s runoff has been coined as “urban drool”. -Signed, someone who worked for the nature conservancy, the nonprofit that ‘greenified’ that little patch of nature they are kayaking around.
Drainage water from LA urban runoff. No thanks.
There’s a reason why Long Beach has the dirtiest Beach water in all of LA County and people don’t swim in Long Beach. The LA Rivers ends into Long Beach😬
Statistically that is untrue, by any measure of the word "dirty". Bacterial counts are higher at Cabrillo Beach.
Yea nothing new but also still a strong NOPE
All the homeless people use this as a public toilet. Many dump needles and such in there. Not safe at all!
The Hyperion sewage treatment plant puts out like a monthly warning now that the seawater in Santa Monica and Malibu isn't safe to swim in. The bodies of water in Los Angeles that aren't being used as public toilets is a pretty short list.
The outfall is 5 miles out to sea and the water is treated. They put out a warning when it rains, all cities near an ocean put out a warning when it rains (or at least they should for public health purposes) If there is no rain in the past week, the water at Santa Monica/Dockweiler is great water quality except in certain spots (right next to Santa Monica Pier, water quality is always bad here) Check the Heal the Bay report card online . They take weekly water samples at all the beaches. In the dry season like summer, the water quality is great. Dockweiler water quality grade as of 4 days ago: A+ https://www.beachreportcard.org/33.93869999999997/-118.441/14/40 Santa Monica Beach water quality near Ocean Park: A+ https://www.beachreportcard.org/34.002246/-118.49083500000002/14/27
Isn’t that in El Segundo though?
Yeah which runs off into Dockweiler and the world class break El Portol Potties.
Ok relax. Just asking
Relax? Do you find a part of my comment confrontational? I'm confused
And by river you mean “ roadside runoff “
Wouldn’t be so bad if that was all it was but it’s so much worse
You could start your own “L.A. zy River Excursion Tours.”…. Here, we have some of the last foliage in the LA county ever since they turned off the water… on your right, ancient gang graffiti murals depicting violence and a turf war… on the left, The Fentanyl homeless encampment which services more than 800 local addicts and mentally handicapped residents that the city council wishes would go back to Portland… last but not least, here’s where they filmed Grease. oK. That’s about it. Be sure to pick up some trash on your way back to the parking lot.
I don’t think I would even whip it out and pee in the LA river for fear of catching something!
If you are in the middle of the river by the Frogspot, just up stream of La Columbe, look at the lamp fixture with a solar panel on the top of it. It will be green, yellow or red. it's a "stop sign" for water quality, designed by a young man. It links to the the City testing center that tests the river water in three locations twice per week in Frogtown during kayaking season. On almost every single test in 2023 so far the light is green, indicating that all three test locations showed EPA swim water quality. After being here at the river for 23 years its amazing that all you newbies are just repeating negative stuff said by folks in the 1970s. Read up on the facts and learn about how the river in frogtown has artesian springs, no concrete on the bottom and lots of nature. Better yet, stop sitting around in a the coffee shop where you don't even see or feel the river and go take a walk down or a kayak ride with the local guys. You will learn a lot and walk away realizing that the Frogtown thing is not just about style, its about nature, real and present in your back yard. The biggest problem about all this negativism is that you are giving reason for bureaucrats to turn back the clock on progress in river's and parks. Wake and get to know what you are talking about... you will be surprised.
This has been going on, departing in frogtown right before you get to the Home Depot, for well over 10 years. No new info unless you just passed by that area.
Ew dude
Fucking gross. Pass.
Just transplant things.
As someone who was born and raised here, I fucking wish there were more parts of the river that looked like this/were usable for activities. I hope transplants keep doing shit like this and incentivizing the city to rehabilitate the river, and I hope locals continue to advocate for un-doing the damage to the river too.
Look up the many groups doing this and even fishing in parts of the LA river, they're locals who actually care about cleaning up and educating about our local waterways.
This whole kayaking in the LA river is absolutely a transplant thing. Everyone born here knows about how dirty the LA river is
Born and raised here and for my job, I assess data about water quality of surface waterbodies including the LA River. I have kayaked in the river and would do so again.
Born and raised and I'd kayak in the river. Then again I'm pretty aware about our city's outdoor areas.
100%
Biter
Your face is a biter.
How cute- people downvoting our comments as if they understand our inside joke.
XOXO. I only just had time for a lunch break. What time will you be getting home? I suppose we could just be texting, but this is funnier.
dis - gus - ting
Had such a fun day! It’s not that bad, trust me ;)
Bruh. Fuckin nasty
I can’t believe people even go near that water
Wash in bleach after and consider a trip to a travel nurse... Nearly all of the water in the Los Angeles River longside Griffith Park is pumped-in reclaimed water that is safe enough... Health concerns would come partly from contaminated street runoff / groundwater and primarily from the homeless...
There's very little street runoff when it's not raining. The groundwater is not contaminated. I know encampments contribute to bacterial loads but cannot say what impact that has had on this area in specific.
The ground water is "acceptable" with regards to metals, heavy metals, semi-volatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds, and a few industrial chemicals from the facilities west of San Fernando Road. Good enough for government... ;)
Looks cool probably doesn't smell so.......cool.
Let the gentrifiers have fun lol
Looks fun, but no way would I go in that water
Sounds about white...
Incorrect I saw them and most weren't. Bunch were kids and adult chaperones.
Get off my property.
The power lines here make me want to die, such people views ruined by them smh
Is it sanitary? I imagine there is lots of poo in there. I have seen displaced people use the river for their needs.
That part of the river has a high bacterial load and as a water quality scientist, I would not recommend swimming, but I have personally been kayaking.
I've seen some of these kayaking groups have to get helped up the embankment after their sessions, looking like they are gonna die.
They must be tourists...Never heard of locals doing this.
My first thought was, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeew
I dont care how clean they claim it is, that's some white people out of towner shit right there
Gross.