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Most beaches from Marina del Rey to San Pedro aced water quality tests last year during the dry summer season, although several sites along the South Bay coastline earned failing scores during rain events, a new report has found.

The 2011-12 Beach Report Card - released annually by the group Heal the Bay before Memorial Day weekend - is based on water sampling for fecal bacteria pollution conducted by health agencies and dischargers along the West Coast.

This year's report analyzed 650 sites for summer dry-weather water quality and more than 300 locations year-round, grading them on an A-F scale. Samples were collected from April 2011 to March 2012.

The higher the grade, the lower the risk of swimmers getting ill with the stomach flu, skin rashes and ear and upper respiratory infections.

In many areas, wet-weather grades drag behind dry-weather scores. During rainy periods, stormwater runoff can flow untreated toward the coast, carrying contaminants such as trash, animal waste and pesticides.

Locally, several sites earned A's during the summer (dry) monitoring period but got F's for wet-weather scores. They include the Imperial Highway storm drain near Los Angeles International Airport, Grand Avenue at El Segundo's beach, 28th Street in Manhattan Beach and the Herondo Street storm drain on the Hermosa/Redondo Beach border.

Heal the Bay is drawing attention to low wet weather scores in hopes of encouraging infrastructure

"There's still a lot of F's that we're dealing with in the wet weather," she said. "We've had some success."

James said she believes government agencies will have to take a "multipronged approach" to solving the problem by pursuing new projects and low-impact development rules.

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South Bay beaches earn above average water quality scores