Beaches open all summer?

scotto

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The Beach Strip
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Mar. 3, 12:26 EDT
Beaches open all summer? Here are the cold facts
Hamilton Spectator Staff
The Hamilton Spectator
The province may force Hamilton and three other Ontario cities to make their public beaches safe for swimming.

Under water quality objectives, cities with combined sanitary and stormwater sewers --such as Hamilton -- should have public beaches open 95 per cent of the summer.

But Hamilton has a marathon swim ahead of it to reach that target for its two harbour beaches.

Bayfront Park was open to swimming just 11 per cent of the time last year.

Pier 4 came in slightly higher at 17 per cent.

And the problem seems to be getting worse.

Pier 4 was open 57 per cent of the time in 2003 and Bayfront 18 per cent.

Lakefront beaches Van Wagners, Beach Boulevard and Confederation Park have much better records.

Though the Ministry of the Environment can issue orders forcing the 95 per cent mark to be reached, that has never happened since they came into effect 10 years ago, said Krystyn Tully, executive director of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

So Waterkeeper and Environment Hamilton have teamed up to convince the province to get tougher on Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston and St. Catharines.

"We weren't expecting it to be nearly this bad," said Tully.

She says the province has "fantastic procedures" in place to ensure safe beaches, but they aren't enforced.

Residents in cities with combined sewer systems have much poorer access to clean beaches than cities that treat the two systems separately, said Tully.

That's because in times of heavy rain, the combined system sends untreated sewage into lakes and rivers to prevent backups into homes.

Tully says the beach water quality objectives should be mandatory.

"Beaches don't belong to the city, they belong to the people who live there.

"The longer people go without access to the waterfront, the more likely they will forget they should have the right to use them."

The province believes the request has merit, said Ministry of the Environment spokesperson Mark Rabbior.

A review of the four cities' pollution control plans is underway and the ministry will consider making the beach objectives mandatory, he said.

While spikes in E. coli would be expected during and after storms, Waterkeeper and Environment Hamilton said 80 per cent of its failed samples were taken when there had been no rain in 48 hours.

So that tends to indicate the contamination is coming from other sources.

Some point to birds. Some say it's contamination upstream -- maybe farms or improperly connected toilets -- that is bypassing the treatment system and flowing right into the lake.

Others say bacteria might live much longer in sand than previously believed.

Researchers are even trying to see if the beach users themselves contaminate the beach.
 
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