Bacteria tests set for Lake Erie beaches

Officials plan to keep a closer eye on pollutants in the water.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio health officials plan to monitor bacteria levels in Lake Erie this summer, employing computer models to warn swimmers of high pollution levels.

Environmentalists last summer ranked the region’s beaches among the worst in the nation for water quality. Water testing warranted health warnings at more than half of Lake Erie’s beaches in August 2007.

Historically, Lake Erie water quality suffers after heavy rainfalls that overwhelm storm systems and sanitary sewers which, in turn, overflow into the lake and its tributaries. A 2005 study by the advocacy group Environment Ohio showed Lake Erie and its basin absorb more than 10 billion gallons of sewage each year.

This year, Ohio health officials plan to tests the water more frequently for pollutants such as E. coli, and they’re expanding online reports of same-day bacteria reports.

“In the past, we had many beaches that were only tested weekly,” said Jill Lis of the Cuyahoga County Health Department. “Now, we test more frequently because we want to know the water quality for scientific purposes and to better inform the swimming public for their safety.”

Ohio does not close beaches but leaves it up to the swimmers to decide whether to go into the water. Various pollutants can cause flulike symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhea, fevers and abdominal cramps.

Health officials plan to expand Nowcast, a computer model that analyzes variables such as wave height, rainfall and water clarity to predict whether bacteria levels are likely to be dangerous on a given day. Most bacteria tests take 18 to 24 hours to complete so swimmers previously didn’t know whether it’s safe to swim in certain areas.

Nowcast has produced an 83 percent accuracy rate for the last two years at Huntington Beach, west of Cleveland. The system will be available this year for swimmers at Edgewater Beach. Researchers spent six years compiling data from the two beaches to build mathematical models that predict E. coli concentrations.

Last year, 22 percent of the samples taken from Ohio’s Lake Erie beaches exceeded standards, the highest rate in the nation, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The sample involved beaches most at risk because of high use or proximity to pollution sources.

The Village Angela, Euclid and Huntington beaches in the Cleveland area, Camp Perry near Port Clinton and Ashtabula’s Lakeshore Park failed to meet clean-water standards more than 25 percent of the time, according to the organization. Villa Angela the worst at a 44 percent failure rate.

“People should keep their head and face out of the water and don’t swallow any lake water,” said Ohio Department of Health spokesman Kristopher Weiss. “And generally, don’t go swimming after a heavy rain because stirred-up water is more likely to be contaminated.”