Half Of Minneapolis' Public Beaches Closed Becuase Of High Runoff Levels, E Coli Contamination
Half of Minneapolis’ 12 public beaches remained shut down Wednesday due to high measurements of E. coli or reports of related illness, with the exceptionally rainy summer contributing to the city’s worst season for beach closures in years.
Two beaches at Lake Nokomis on Tuesday became the latest to be shut down after three children became sick while swimming. Though that number is small compared to the 116 people who reported falling ill after swimming at Lake Minnetonka’s Big Island during the July 4th weekend, the bacteria has nonetheless forced the city to empty some of its most popular beaches during the height of the swimming season.
This summer has brought the most beach closures at one time since the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board began testing for the bacteria in 2003, said Debra Pilger, the Park Board’s director of environmental management. It is also the first time in her 25-year history with the Park Board that beaches have been closed because of illness reports, she said, rather than simply because of test results.
The number of beach closures is “unusually high,” Pilger said, spurred on by one of the wettest years ever for the metro area. Minneapolis has gotten 26.68 inches of rain this year — about 6.9 inches above average — making it the fifth-wettest to date in recorded history, according to the National Weather Service.
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http://www.startribune.com/e-coli-leads-to-record-number-of-beach-closures-in-minneapolis/543148062/