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Swimming advisories down, but bacteria above normal

August 11, 2000

Swimming advisory signs have been taken down at Maumee Bay State Park, five days after they were posted.

Steve Binns, administrator of the Ohio Department of Health's bureau of local environmental services, said yesterday the signs were taken down Tuesday after bacteria in that part of Lake Erie had plunged to one of the lowest levels of the summer.

The luck didn't last. The health department learned yesterday that laboratory results from a sample drawn Wednesday showed bacteria above normal again, although not consistently high enough to put the signs back up, Mr. Binns said.

Water near the park's lakefront beach yesterday had an average E. coli level of 115 parts per 100 milliliters, below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's threshold of 126 parts per 100 milliliters.

The average is based on the five most recent samples, the latest of which was Wednesday's reading of 238 parts per 100 milliliters. Two days earlier, based on a sample drawn Monday, water near the beach had a mere 10 colonies of E. coli per 100 milliliters, among the lowest the level gets for this time of year, Mr. Binns said.

The sudden rise was attributed to a trace amount of rain on Tuesday.

The swimming advisory was the second this summer at the park, the first of which lasted five weeks and ended July 10.

Both advisories were for the lake only. The current average bacteria level for the park's inland pond is 48 colonies of E. coli per 100 milliliters, well within U.S. EPA guidelines.

At Crane Creek State Park in Ottawa County, the bacteria level is even lower. The current average is 30 parts per 100 milliliters.

E. coli is the type of bacteria viewed as the greatest indicator of human health risk. At excessive levels, it can make people experience flu-like symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. In extreme cases, it is lethal.