Water quality testing to begin Tuesday at Halifax area beaches

Halifax Regional Municipality is starting water quality tests at beaches for the summer.

Summer has barely begun, and people are already making the most of the weather, but as the temperature rises so does the risk for bacteria.

“When the water is around body temperature, that’s really the right temperature for these organisms to really have population booms,” said Elizabeth Montgomery, a water resources specialist with Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

Staff with HRM will begin water quality testing at supervised beaches on July 1.

“We test weekly, typically at the beginning of the week, just so we have lots of time to retest if there’s an exceedance,” she said. “Typically, if you’re at the beach on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, you can see our lifeguard coordinators out there taking samples.”

Staff will regularly test for E. coli levels, blue-green algae and other waterborne contaminants.

“We test for E. coli at all of our fresh water supervised beaches and enterococci at our brackish and saltwater supervised beaches, and that’s basically to test to see if there’s fecal contamination at any of the beaches.”

While warmer water can create an environment for bacteria to grow, there are other contributing factors for potential closures.

“Either wildlife or waterfowl can also be a source, but also heavy rainfall can contribute to bacteria because then basically everything that’s on the land gets flushed out into the water, and so that’s why you tend to see beach closures or high bacteria numbers after a heavy rainfall,” said Montgomery.

HRM will provide beach status updates weekdays by 8 a.m. and weekends by 9 a.m. between July 1 and September 1. However, closures due to suspected blue-green algae can happen at any time.

“We’ve trained all our lifeguards who work at the beaches how to observe for and watch for the signs of blue green algae. We train the lifeguards because they’re there the most.”

If a swimming advisory goes into effect, Montgomery said lifeguards will remain on site to advise people against going in the water. Swimming at a beach under an advisory could result in illness.

“You could see symptoms like skin rash, upset stomach, hives. Folks who have sensitive skin or are immunocompromised are more likely to see these effects, and these guidelines are really set to capture the folks who are the most at risk,” she said.

Montgomery said if bacteria levels come back higher than what the guidelines recommend, staff will continue to retest the water until they are back in the appropriate range.

“We’re doing our best to monitor on our beaches and we feel confident that we’re delivering like a safe service at these places,” she said.

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