Water quality thoughts

[geodee]

Lake Ontario

Monday I was talking to my brother about swimming Lake Ontario. He thought I was crazy when I told him that most of the beaches most of the time are actually pretty good. The next day this article in The Star got us talking about it again. I read through the comments, and people overwhelmingly ripped the beaches to shreds. A few people said that there is garbage in the water, or they came out with a filmy feeling on them. So I'm not sure what to make of it.

Last night a few of us went for a bit of a swim at Woodbine after Cherry Beach was canceled and it was actually pretty nice. I took a couple big gulps, and I don't really feel that sick today. Maybe a slight (imagined) sore throat, and I couldn't decide if I was covered in oil or my skin was too dry. Yes, the media had a pretty big effect on my paranoia--it was actually awesome.

I've been spending some time checking out the e. coli reports for Woodbine, Cherry, and others, and comparing them to historical rainfall data and temperature. There really doesn't seem to be that much correlation between anything!

The data for yesterday was just posted and (unexpectedly) despite no rain and having the same temperature as the day before, the e. coli levels were actually over for Woodbine, and under for Cherry! WTF? Looking at the history of Cherry Beach, it looks like that one follows rainfall closely. It would make sense, being close to the mouth of the Don. But there's really no rhyme or reason to Woodbine. Or if you made the mistake of following trends and went to Bluffer's Park, you would have ended up swimming at a level of 373, when the last report was 13 (which was the day after rainfall too).

Is there any other way to determine how bad a beach is going to be? Or does each beach have it's own set of trends to forecast? Or is there any way to test the water ourselves?

Lake Wilcox

I really like swimming here first thing on Saturdays. I can't imagine a better way to start the weekend. But it looks like Richmond Hill (or was it York Region) stopped testing water quality when they closed the beach. I heard someone mention that the lake can get pretty skunky later in the summer. That's pretty brutal sounding, and it makes me wonder about what we're doing to ourselves! I know they've been making lots of efforts toward keeping it clean by naturalizing the shoreline, getting people in the area to avoid dumping phosphates, and adding sewers to replace septic systems, but there's no way for us to qualify whether this actually makes it safe for us to swim.

I'm not the best swimmer, so I do swallow some water, but last Saturday after I got home from the swim I was experiencing so GI issues. Granted I was experimenting with nutrition (with something that worked well for me last year), but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this after swimming in Wilcox.

Fun in Lake Ontario

Has anyone thought of swimming across to Ward's Island from Cherry Beach? It's only a couple hundred metres across (what I assume is a very deep) channel, but it would be such a fun thing to say you did. You know, eff the ferry, I swam to the island. But then again there are water quality issues. Ward's Island beach seems relatively sketchy. And who knows what's in the channel.

It's sad that bacteria has such a huge impact on how we enjoy our city.

[trosen]

Thanks for the posting. The potential for illness is real, and one local pro became ill after a practice swim prior to a race overseas preventing participation in the race. Caution is the key word.

I've been told that swimming in Lake Wilcox is safe and as long as the NRGPT group continues to swim there I am willing to do so as well. Ear and nose plugs might reduce the potential for infection. It would be good if club members would post their experience at open water swim locations to help share the information.

Swimming across the Easter Gap (cherry beach to the island) could be very dangerous due to the boat traffic, both recreational and commercial. Boaters would not be looking for swimmers, and are generally more concerned with getting through the channel quickly. Oncoming boats from different directions are more concerned with the other boats and closeness to shore than an unexpected swimmer in the water.

Ted