Water quality monitoring resumes at Lambton County beaches

Water quality monitoring resumed for the season at public beaches along Lake Huron in Lambton County following a summer when a high number of warnings were posted.

Article content

Lambton Public Health posted local beaches with warning signs 27 times in 2023, up from 23 in 2022, which previously was the highest number since the summer of 2011.

Signs warning swimmers go up at beaches when E. coli bacteria levels are predicted to be above provincial guidelines.

“I think we’ve just been affected by a lot of rain,” said Lori Lucas, health inspection supervisor with the local public health agency.

“We know the impacts weather,” including heavy rainfall and high waves, “can have on the beaches,” she said.

Those conditions can stir up bacteria that tend to settle into the lake sediment.

“It just felt like it rained, and it rained, and it rained again,” in the summer of 2023, Lucas said.

Lambton Public Health began this summer’s monitoring on June 17, and it will continue through to the end of August.

Article content

At the north and south beaches at Grand Bend, the Ipperwash main beach, Bright’s Grove beach, including Mike Weir Park, and Canatara Park beach in Sarnia, the agency uses predictive beach modeling with information gathered regularly at the sites.

It’s a statistical equation tool predicting E. coli levels in the water using current weather conditions, past beach data and environmental factors. Lab testing of water samples taken regularly at the beaches validate the tool.

“I think, overall, we’ve had pretty good accuracy,” Lucas said.

In 2022, the models were more than 90 per cent accurate at all five beaches and nearly 97 per cent accurate at Canatara and Bright’s Grove, according to a county report.

The advantage of modeling is that it provides a real time prediction of water quality compared to sending water samples to a lab and waiting for results, a process which may take days, the county said.

Article content

It also allows warning signs to come down more quickly when conditions change.

The summer of 2017 was the only season since 2011 when no beaches were posted in Lambton, according to the report.

Beaches at Pinery Provincial Park in Lambton Shores, where park staff take samples, and the CJ McEwen park beach in Plympton-Wyoming, where data to create a predictive model is still being collected, are monitored weekly through water samples.

The public can access results by texting “Beach” to 226-909-3003, or by calling the local beach information line, 519-383-3816. Results also can be found on the Lambton Public Health website lambtonpublichealth.ca.

Lucas said Lambton Public Health cautions visitors to beaches that there may still be water quality issues even if it isn’t posted.

Article content

“Things can change very rapidly,” she said.

There are days when the lake is calm in the morning but the wind changes later in the day “and, all of a sudden, things can get stirred up,” Lucas said.

“We encourage people to make those informed decisions and take a look at what factors are happening at the beach before you go in.”

If someone is standing in the water and can’t see their feet, that can be an indicator of poor water quality, Lucas said.

“High levels of bacteria in the water can cause skin, ear, eye, nose and throat infections, as well as some stomach issues,” she said.

The monitoring program doesn’t include public beaches along the St. Clair River where some are permanently posted with warnings about the potential for high bacteria levels following heavy rain.

[email protected]

Article content