If you’re planning visits to the beach or lake this summer, you’ll be able to check the quality of the water before you hit the road.
The provincial government has created a new program to help keep the public aware of water quality issues at 67 public swimming areas across Saskatchewan.
Healthy Beaches is a monitoring program from the Ministry of Health that helps keep residents informed of potential blue-green algae or E.coli observations at these selected locations.
Nicole White, a Zootonic/Environmental Health Consultant with the Ministry of Health, explained that these spots were chosen based on the popularity of the beach, history of water quality and other environmental health factors.
The water tests will help detect bacteria that can be harmful to humans, pets and livestock.
“We want to identify water quality trends with the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of waterborne illnesses to swimmers,” said White. “These things can cause respiratory infections, affect your nose and throat, skin infections and gastrointestinal problems.”
She mentioned how these periodic tests will help identify high E.coli levels which can be excreted from warm blooded animals and affect humans. Blue-green algae can produce a toxin called microcystin that can grow from algal blooms and pose a threat to drinking water supplies and create a number of health problems.
If one of these bacteria are found from water tests at of one of their locations, more water quality tests will be completed as soon as possible and could lead to either a caution or swimming advisory status.
But White said they won’t close the beaches to the public if tests come back positive.
“These are advisories, so it’ll be in a very rare event where we’d do a beach closure,” she explained. “People can still use the beach, but we’re encouraging people to follow instructions from signs such as not ingesting the water, keeping you and your pets away if there’s a blue-green algae increase.”
So far there are no particular recreational sites in the province that are over the parameters for blue-green algae.
Residents will be able to access these water quality reports from the Government of Saskatchewan website on a weekly basis.
They’ll be posted on each Monday until September.
