Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — It’s been 42 days since Cobden Beach was posted that it was not safe to swim due to high contamination by E.coli, which is sewage contamination.
This contamination includes bird droppings, which there has been no shortage of this summer at the Cobden Beach, noted Mike Grace, manager of environmental services at the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
On June 3, the first testing of Cobden Beach occurred by inspectors with the health unit, which tests about 25 beaches within the County, he said.
The provincial standard is 100 E.coli organisms per 100 mL of water, he noted. There are five samples taken, and they are spread out the width and depth of the beach area, he explained. Then a calculation is used to determine the geometric mean of the five samples. This is done so that it reduces the bias of having a high or low result, he added.
If the first geometric means show a sample above 100 E.coli organisms per 100mL of water, another sample is taken as soon as possible and sent to the lab right away, Mr. Grace said. And that was the case in Cobden. On July 14, the geometric means showed 385 E.coli organisms per 100mL of water. On July 17, an inspector was sent to take five more samples and they were rushed to the Ottawa lab. That result was lower, but at 237 E.coli/100mL of water, the beach was closed, he said.
“That shows there is significant evidence of sewage contamination,” Mr. Grace said.
On Aug. 22, the last time the water was tested prior to Mr. Grace’s interview, the geometric means showed 174 E.coli/100 mL of water.
It’s believed there is a high number of Canadian geese and seagulls at the beach, which is causing the high contamination, he said. Mr. Grace has been at the beach a few times to assess the situation and witnessed the number of fowl there and agrees, for whatever reason, they are gathering in Cobden.
“We cannot explain why the geese and seagulls are gathering in Cobden,” he said. “It’s beyond our realm. The raft was also covered in droppings which contains E.coli.
“Our job is to collect the samples, determine the risk to people’s health and report to the public and offer our comments as to what may be the cause,” Mr. Grace said, adding, “This is the worse season we’ve seen for seagulls and geese at Cobden Beach. Other beaches have had an abundance of geese over the years.”
He believes getting rid of the birds will be difficult, considering it’s just not possible to go out and shoot them. As for cleaning the beach, he has noticed someone has been raking the beach area to clean it of the feces.
“I’ve noticed there have been ongoing efforts to clean up the beach,” Mr. Grace said. “We are satisfied with what they (the municipality) are doing to clean the beach area.”
He noted the Muskrat Lake Watershed Council, the municipality and the Muskrat Lake Property Owners Association have all been kept informed of the beach closure. It’s not advisable that anyone drink the surface water, and if it’s drawn into a house or cottage to wash dishes, they should be rinsed with bleach, he suggested.
With the 2014 swimming season coming to a close he doesn’t see the beach opening for this season. In order to re-open the beach, there has to be two consecutive samples with acceptable results, he said.
Mr. Grace believes this is the longest the Cobden Beach has been closed. Usually the closure comes later in the season when the algae bloom occurs. And, on Monday, there was a report to the unit of a blue-green algae bloom in the northwest corner of Muskrat Lake. He did go to the area, but did not see anything. The report has been sent to the Ministry of Environment, which will do a follow-up to determine if there is an algae bloom, he added.
Muskrat Lake is not the only lake that has algae blooms, also known as Cyano Bacteria.
“All fresh-water lakes have this bloom, but it needs to have ideal growth conditions for it to flower,” he said.
The conditions would include high nutrient levels in the lake, such as phosphorous and nitrogen. It also needs the sun to grow and develop, he added.
Mr. Grace said people, pets and livestock should avoid contact with the bloom as it is poisonous.
For more information on the algae bloom, go to the health unit’s web site.
