No Beach ‘Closings’
By David Bruce, Erie Times-News, Pa.
May 19–Presque Isle State Park will no longer close its beaches because of high levels of bacteria.
Instead, the park will use a new advisory system that allows swimming in water with up to four times the amount of E. coli bacteria as previously permitted.
“We feel that this new system is perfectly safe,” said Andy Glass, director of the Erie County Department of Health. “Research has shown no significant increase in illness in the states that follow this same advisory system.”
Glass announced the switch Friday near the end of a two-day seminar about high E. coli levels in Lake Erie.
Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio called for the seminar to address the E. coli problem. High E. coli levels forced Presque Isle to close at least one of its beaches on 17 different days in 2006.
Harry Leslie, the park’s operations manager, said the 2006 park attendance of about 3.5 million visitors “was the lowest we had in at least 20 years.”
“When we closed a beach, we would get calls from out-of-town people asking if the entire park was closed,” he said.
In previous years, the park closed any beach at which the water had at least 235 E. coli colonies per 1,000 milliliters of lake water.
Though park and county health officials called it a “beach closing,” people were still allowed on the beach. They just weren’t permitted to swim.
“You’ll never hear us call it a beach closing again,” Glass said.
Now water samples that contain between 235 and 999 E. coli colonies per 1,000 milliliters will cause park officials to issue instead a “swimming advisory.”
Swimming will still be permitted, though some people — including those with weakened immune systems and those with open cuts or wounds — will be advised not to go in the water.
Park officials will prohibit swimming at a particular beach only when a water sample contains 1,000 or more E. coli colonies.
High E. coli levels caused Presque Isle beaches to be closed 57 times in 2006. Had this new system been in place, swimming would have been prohibited at one beach, Beach 1 West Extension, for one day, July 11.
“We have talked with the (Environmental Protection Agency) and they said this new system is more in line with national beach protocol,” Leslie said. “Their goal is to have 90 percent of the beaches open 95 percent of the time.”
But how safe is it to swim in water with up to 999 colonies of E. coli per 1,000 milliliters?
On its Web site (www.epa.gov), the EPA refers to a 1986 study that determined that routinely swimming in water with 235 E. coli colonies will sicken eight out of 1,000 people.
Swimming routinely in water with 1,000 E. coli colonies will sicken 20 out of 1,000 people.
Glass presented Erie County hospital data from 2005 and 2006 during the seminar that showed no increase in patients admitted with gastrointestinal illness on days the beaches were closed.
“The risk of illness, even under elevated E. coli counts, is relatively low,” said John “Conn” Lyons, M.D., a member of the Presque Isle Advisory Committee. “Do elevated levels translate into disease? Not that we know of. Can it? Possibly.”
The strains of E. coli commonly found in Lake Erie water are relatively harmless. They can cause mild to moderate diarrhea, Lyons said.
Commonly found in the intestines of mammals, E. coli is used as a marker. It tells biologists that there is fecal matter — and possibly other, more harmful bacteria, in the water.
John Oliver, director of the Erie Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, greeted the new advisory system with enthusiasm.
Visitors to Presque Isle contribute about $175 million to the Erie area economy each year, he said.
“Beach closings had a negative effect, no doubt about it,” Oliver said.
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