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http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may05/329987.asp
Bradford Beach surfaced as Milwaukee's dirtiest beach during last year's swimming season, in a new analysis, while all three of the city's Lake Michigan beaches posted more days with dangerous bacteria levels in 2004 than the two prior years.
E. coli bacteria counts at Bradford exceeded safe levels for 61% of the three-month swimming season, according to the city Health Department review. But the picture wasn't much better at McKinley and South Shore Park beaches in 2004, with high bacteria counts for 52% and 56% of the season, respectively. The figures were based on 98 days of testing starting in late May.
Put another way, if you took a swim on any given day last summer at any of the city's beaches you had a better than 50-50 chance of dousing yourself with E. coli - a type of bacteria commonly linked with fecal material - at potentially unhealthy levels. Affixing blame for the bad beach pollution last year is tough for scientists because of the large number of variables that affect beach bacteria, said Paul Biedrzycki, manager of disease control and prevention for the Milwaukee Health Department. Researchers say runoff pollution is likely a major culprit, but that doesn't mean sewer overflows get a pass. Disease-causing organisms contained in human sewage continue to make overflows the most worrisome of the beach pollution sources, said Sandra McLellan, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes Water Institute.
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