Lake Water Quality 2006 Report - Lakefield Herald

Lake-by-Lake E.coli ResultsTo put the results in perspective:• 100 E.coli/100 mL is the level at which public beaches are posted unsafe for swimming;• Kawartha Lake Stewards Association believes the safe swimming level for our lakes should be more stringent than this,and have set the acceptable level at 50 E.coli/100 mL. KLSA regards counts over 50 as cause for concern;• Counts 20 and below, with an occasional reading between 20 and 50, are normal for the Kawartha lakes;• A “-“ indicates no data available for that date.Balsam L: Killarney Bay2006 E.coli Lake Water TestingE.coli/100 mLSite No. 03-Jul-06 11-Jul-06 17-Jul-06 23-Jul-06 31-Jul-06Al 280 400, 9, 62, 48, 21 2, 4, 7, 3, 7 4 7Balsam Lake: Killarney BayThis is the first year of testing in this area. When volunteers returned to retestafter the July 3 high reading of 280 E.coli/100 mL, a sign had been placed there byHaliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit, indicating that the area was notrecommended for swimming due to high bacterial counts.There was heavy rain at the time of the July 3 reading. Although geese are not oftenseen there, they were on the dock that day.The retests were taken along a 300-metre stretch of shore near the original highreading. Interestingly, the lowest readings of the five, only 9 E.coli/100 mL, was atthe original site, while the other, higher readings were nearby.There is some agricultural runoff into this water.Possible sources of bacteria, then, would be waterfowl and agricultural runoff.68