Fw: Investigating municipal beaches: Lessons from Bluffer's Park

[Richard L Whitman <rwhitman@usgs.gov>]

-

"Alley, Douglas W." <AlleyD@windsor.ijc.org>

05/30/2006 07:36 AM

To	"Sheridan K Haack" <skhaack@usgs.gov>, "Kinzelman, Julie" <Julie.Kinzelman@cityofracine.org>, "Joan Rose" <rosejo@msu.edu>, <richard_whitman@usgs.gov>, "Holly Wirick" <wirick.holiday@epa.gov>, <cmather@aci.on.ca>, <hwhitele@uoguelph.ca>, <krantz@mcmaster.ca>, "Harvey Shear" <hshear@utm.utoronto.ca>, "Michael D'Andrea" <michael_d'andrea@toronto.ca>, "Sanborn, Marg MD" <msanborn@sbghc.on.ca>, "Charlton,Murray [Burlington]" <Murray.Charlton@ec.gc.ca>, <brian.gibson@utoronto.ca>, <mcampbe2@toronto.ca>
cc	"Alley, Douglas W." <AlleyD@windsor.ijc.org>, "Vigmostad, Karen E." <VigmostadK@windsor.ijc.org>
Subject	Investigating municipal beaches: Lessons from Bluffer's Park

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper <http://www.waterkeeper.ca>    
              
Waterkeeper.ca Weekly: 
Monday, May 29, 2006

                
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper <http://www.waterkeeper.ca/>    
              
www.waterkeeper.ca
                

Investigating municipal beaches: Lessons from Bluffer's Park
<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/images/bluffer-stream.jpg>
E. coli laced water creeps towards Bluffer's Beach 

________________________________



Thursday marks the official start of the 2006 swimming season.
Temperatures are already soaring and Environment Canada is predicting a
hotter than usual summer for most of the country. As the smog days pile
up and schools let out, many people in southern Ontario will be looking
for a free, convenient way to cool off ... and many urban-dwellers are
about to be disappointed.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper will release a report this week that shows
Ontario's municipalities are making little headway in the push to reopen
our urban beaches, despite the efforts of numerous non-profit
organizations and frequent media attention in recent summers. Provincial
policy says that urban beaches are supposed to be open at least 95% of
the summer, with the assumption that beaches not affected by old
combined sewer systems will be open every single day. After three years
of comprehensive beach monitoring, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper notes that
not one municipality on Lake Ontario is meeting this standard.

Provincial rules also say that municipalities should complete beach
surveys prior to the start of each swimming season to identify potential
sources of pollution so they can be eliminated. A series of information
requests proves that not one municipality on Lake Ontario has ever
completed these surveys.

Our research drew our attention to Toronto's Bluffer's Park Beach, which
was closed 93% of the 2005 season. These results continue a legacy of
highly frequent closings at this particular beach. Lake Ontario
Waterkeeper decided to study Bluffer's Beach to prove that the Ministry
of Health Survey can be a powerful tool for winning back our beaches.

Despite the high frequency of its closings, Bluffer's Park Beach is one
of the most favoured beaches in the GTA. It is an extremely popular
destination for local residents as it is the sole beach servicing most
of Scarborough. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper launched an independent
investigation to determine why Bluffer's Beach was so frequently closed.
This included a sampling program of direct discharges into Lake Ontario
(both streams and storm sewers), the sampling of surface waters in the
park itself and the sampling of the swimming area at the beach on eight
different occasions throughout the 2005 season. With the help of
scientist David Dillenbeck, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper produced a report.

The following is a brief summary of the findings discussed in our
report:

*                
The City of Toronto has created a containment area at the base
of the bluffs adjacent to the northerly side of the Bluffer's Park
Access Road. This containment area collects several sources of water,
including precipitation that has fallen on the parklands as well as
stormwater from the streets, driveways and parking lots of the
residential areas. 
                
*                
This containment area discharges via a stream across Bluffer's
Park Beach directly into Lake Ontario.
                
*                
E-coli levels in the discharge stream are extremely high
                
The City of Toronto should eliminate this E-coli, treat the
E-coli or divert it away from the park in order to reduce the number of
beach closings.

We submitted our findings to the City of Toronto's Works Committee and
requested meeting to discuss our report. The committee received our
report but has thus far declined to meet with us. Similarly, in 2005,
the Ontario government began investigating St. Catharines, Hamilton,
Toronto, and other cities to see why they have chronic beach pollution
problems. The results of the investigation were supposed to be made
public in January, but have never been released. 

It's debatable if this chronic beach pollution is illegal, but it is
clear that cities and their citizens are suffering real losses. Every
person in Ontario should have equal access to our clean water, but they
don't. The truth is, most people do not have a cottage "up north"
where
they can escape our increasingly hot and smoggy summer weather. And even
wild areas of the Great Lakes are seeing beach postings for the first
time, as tolerance of municipal pollution spreads to other regions.

This summer, Waterkeeper is embarking on its biggest beaches monitoring
program ever. You can track monthly results online
(waterkeeper.ca/beaches) or follow Waterkeeper.ca Weekly for updates. We
need to believe that, if followed, the provincial policies will win back
our beaches. We need to believe that this summer will be the summer
someone finally declares beach postings unacceptable. Otherwise, each
new beach posting on Lake Ontario is a sign of failure, making it harder
and harder for people to believe this sleeping beauty can be revived.

More information: 
Waterkeeper's 2005 Beach Report
<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/content/swim/2005_beach_report.php>
Lessons from Bluffer's Park
<http://www.waterkeeper.ca/documents/BeachReport.pdf>
Waterkeeper.ca/beaches <http://www.waterkeeper.ca/beaches> 





________________________________

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