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BathingBeach Water Quality Monitoring – Summer:

The Western Upper Peninsula District Health Department currently tests water quality weekly at 17 public bathing beaches across Gogebic, Ontonagon, Baraga, Houghton, and Keweenaw counties.  Water quality parameters such as turbidity, temperature, and possible contamination sources are investigated at each beach.  The water is then tested for the indicator organism E. coli.

According to the United States EPA, the presence of E. coli bacteria in large numbers indicates that fecal contamination has occurred and that harmful pathogens may be present in the water.  Any beach with an unacceptable level of E. coli bacteria would be closed to swimming by the Health Department in order to protect public health until the contamination was cleared.

This project has been made possible by two grants from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) for testing the water quality at bathing beaches in the Western Upper Peninsula. These grant funds were allocated to the DEQ by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as authorized by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act, and by the Clean Michigan Initiative Act.

Test results are updated daily by Health Department staff and may be viewed on the MDEQ’s beach website http://www.deq.state.mi.us/beach/.

For more information visit the EPA’s beach website at http://www.epa.gov/beaches/ or contact the Health Department.