N.B. group wants province to look into high bacteria levels at Parlee Beach

There have been eight “no swimming” advisories at Parlee Beach in Shediac, N.B., this season due to high bacteria levels.

An environmental group wants the province to do more to investigate what’s causing this to happen at one of New Brunswick’s biggest tourist destinations.

“We cannot continue having these high peaks, because sooner or later there’s going to be an incident that hurts the reputation of Parlee Beach, so we got to fix it before it gets out of control,” said Arthur Melanson, the vice-president of the Red Dot Association.

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The association is a citizens’ advocacy group focused on environmental issues in the Shediac Bay.

They’ve been calling for better management of bacteria at Parlee since 2015, as the issue continues to make headlines each summer.

“The whole sewage system at Parlee Beach was upgraded and now they’ve put in a treatment facility that treats the surface water before it goes into the lagoon that feeds into the beach, but there’s still these high peaks that are there,” said Melanson.

A provincial spokesperson told Global News that a combination of weather events and environmental conditions can cause the bacteria levels to fluctuate.

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