Swimming advisories will no longer be issued automatically following rainfall at Parlee Beach, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health announced Thursday.
Dr. Jennifer Russell says there’s no direct correlation between rainfall and higher bacteria levels and that the provincial park has “very, very good water quality.”
“Twenty-eight of precautionary rainfall advisories posted throughout the last two years — only four accurately represent water bacteria levels,” Russell said at a media briefing in Shediac.
“As a result of all the data we’ve collected over the last two years, there isn’t a correlation between the rainfall information and bacteria levels so that’s why we’re not going to include that in our protocols any longer.”
READ MORE: Parlee Beach hopes Blue Flag designation restores confidence in water quality
The provincial beach has been under scrutiny for poor water quality, especially highlighted in the past two years, but was awarded Blue Flag eco-certification from Environmental Defence for “great water quality,” meeting “high safety standards and … working hard to protect local shorelines and ecosystems.” The designation was awarded in May.
“Our standards are very high, probably the highest in North America,” said Alan Bard, assistant deputy minister of the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.
Water levels are sampled 10 times at five different locations throughout each day, he said.
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Last year, 14 of the 27 “no swimming” advisories posted between May 23, 2018 and Oct. 9, 2018 were a result of bacteria levels being too high for people to safely swim.
“Of the 10 samples a day that we do at Parlee, 98 per cent of them come back below Canadian guidelines so we have very, very good water quality at Parlee Beach,” Russell said.
She also said some precautions visitors can take to help stay safe include not swallowing water at the beach, not exposing cuts or wounds, showering before and after a visit and washing your hands before eating.
WATCH (July 31, 2018): Shediac businesses launch effort to bring tourists back to Parlee Beach
Rémi Donelle, manager of the Shediac Bay Watershed Association, says the organization is continuing to work with the province on the issue.
“There’s still some work to do to find sources of bacteria when they come,” he said. “We’ll be working with the province and doing more testing, doing some improvement projects to try to lessen the bacteria impacts on (Shediac) Bay.”
Rose Stemme, a cottage owner in the area, says that despite the designation, the image of the beach is already tainted.
“We are not getting the tourists,” she said. “It doesn’t affect me but it affects a lot of people that are renting their cottages and stuff like that.”
Another change announced Thursday will see water test results automatically entered online rather than manually.
The change is an effort to remove chances of human error, Bard said, but will not expedite the process between when the samples arrive at the lab in Moncton and when the results are posted.
Bard said results would still only be listed online at 2 p.m. the following day.