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Remediation work at Thunder Bay beaches leads to drop in E. coli levels

Jun 07, 2022 10:09AM ● By Content Editor
Three Thunder Bay beaches — two at Chippewa Park and one at Boulevard Lake — that have been regularly closed due to E. coli levels for decades may soon be getting a clean bill of health. (City of Thunder Bay/Provided)


By CBC News Staff - CBC News - June 7, 2022

The Friends of Chippewa Park are hopeful for a surge in visitors to the south-side attraction now that water testing has shown bacteria levels at the Thunder Bay, Ont., park's beaches have dropped.

A memo presented to city council Monday night says the two beaches at Chippewa — the main beach and Sandy Beach — as well one at Boulevard Lake have seen major improvements to water quality in recent years.

The beaches have seen regular closures due to high E. coli levels for decades.

"A lot of people just assumed that if the beach wasn't accessible, then the park wasn't either, which wasn't the case," said Iain Angus, secretary of Friends of Chippewa Park. "Knowing now that the public will be told that the beach is not a problem, we're hoping that more people will start to use the main beach as opposed to just the Sandy Beach, which has become very popular."

The three beaches have all had what are known as "beneficial use impairments."

"When human activity negatively interferes with the use or enjoyment of water, that's when it's called a beneficial use impairment," said Ian Morgan, the city's chief chemist. "Typically the cause of the closures are just water quality conditions."

But remedial actions overseen by the Remedial Action Plan program — which was formed to deal with beneficial use impairments in the Great Lakes — have led to a drop in E. coli levels at the beaches.

"Over the past about 30 years, the Remedial Action Plan [RAP] program has implemented a number of different remedial actions, such as management of storm-water inputs, upgrades, septic systems, implementation of management programs for birds and animals," said Tim Hollinger, RAP co-ordinator for the north shore of Lake Superior.

Beaches in 'really good condition'

"What we've seen over two five-year average monitoring terms is, E. coli levels, they have met what we call de-listing criteria for the Thunder Bay beaches," he said.

According to the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's website, in the last five years, about 10 per cent of water tests at Boulevard Lake and 20 per cent of tests at the Chippewa Park main beach have shown elevated E. coli levels.

Meanwhile, none of the tests of the water at Sandy Beach have shown elevated E. coli levels in the same time period.

"The Thunder Bay beaches are in really good condition," Hollinger said. "There's has been a lot of work to fix them, or to help remediate, higher levels of E coli.

"We're pretty lucky to have the quality of beaches that we do have in the city. And yeah, the remedial action plan has worked pretty hard at trying to get them to where they are, in partnership with the city and the health unit over the years."

Rules changed

Angus said it's not just remediation efforts that have led to the improvement in water quality.

"What the Canadian government has done, and the health unit followed suit, is that they've changed the rules," he said. "They've done some further research and they found that the original thresholds were not appropriate.

"They've changed them so that beaches like Chippewa are no longer considered problem areas, so we're pleased with that," Angus said. "We just wish they'd done it sooner, because too many people thought that the whole park was closed as opposed to just a warning for the beach."

Angus said the beach closures led to an overall decline in visitors to Chippewa Park.

However, Angus said, there is one downside to what's otherwise a positive change. The Friends of Chippewa Park had sought some federal funding for remediation efforts, including removal of the aging dock/breakwater that spans the bay beyond the main beach at Chippewa.

However, when the beach's designation changed, that funding — which was specifically for remediation efforts — the project was no longer eligible for the funds.

"It'll be up to the City of Thunder Bay to decide whether or not that is a priority going forward," said Angus. "Certainly from a safety point of view, the dock is partially destroyed, it's an eyesore, it's unsafe.

"The public is not allowed on it, so something needs to be done to eliminate that aspect of the situation."

Hollinger said it may be up to six months before the "impaired" designation is officially removed by the federal and provincial governments.


To see the original report and read related stories, follow this link to the CBC News website.