Regional beach testing wraps up for 2017
Oshawa’s Lakeview Park Beach East had a clean season, not once being posted for elevated e. coli levels.
Historically high water levels were a thorn in the side of the region’s beaches this summer.
According to Mike Pittman, senior health inspector for Durham Health, in an otherwise “average” year for the region’s beach monitoring program, the high levels, caused by some of the largest rainfalls the area has ever seen, created some issues, particularly at Oshawa’s Lakeview Beach West, where weekly testing couldn’t be performed at all this summer.
“Testers didn’t actually set up the equipment because the water level was so high,” Pittman says, noting beaches on the Lake Ontario shoreline were mostly affected, including those in Ajax and Pickering.
Pittman says water levels remain unusually high even as summer turns to fall.
However, other than this issue, Pittman says the number of beach postings wasn’t significantly higher than the previous year.
Oshawa’s Lakeview Beach East didn’t receive any postings this summer for high e.coli levels.
Testing is performed at each of Durham Region’s beaches throughout the months of June, July and August.
Samples are then sent to a provincial lab, and beaches with levels of more than 100 E.coli per 100 millimetres of water are posted as unsafe for swimming.
Beaches posted most often this summer were Beaverton North and South Beach, Kinsmen Beach in Scugog, Newcastle Beach Central, and Whitby Beach.