There is still no swimming allowed at several Berrien County beaches after tests this week found elevated levels of E coli in the water.
Berrien County Health Officer Guy Miller tells us the samples taken Monday showed E coli too high for safety at Warren Dunes, Jean Klock Park, Weko Beach, Rocky Gap County Park, and Townline Beach.
Miller says the health department has not received any reports of a large sewage leak. He believes several factors could be contributing to the E coli.
“The runoff that we have on the banks of the rivers and in our parking lots and from animal feces or animal carcasses and things like that that might be in that runoff is one causative agent,” Miller said.
Miller says lake currents and the wind can affect how water is moved around in Lake Michigan at any given time, so those could be part of the reason for an accumulation of E coli near beaches. That could also explain why Silver Beach and Tiscornia Beach, both near the St. Joseph River, haven’t been affected.
The Berrien County Health Department checks the water at 14 beaches each week during the summer.
“We go into six feet deep of water and we sample one foot down from the surface. We take three samples at each beach, then we combine those into an aggregate sample and ship that off to the laboratory.”
Miller says it takes about a day to get the results back. The health department could not collect new samples from the affected beaches on Wednesday because of the wave conditions, so the earliest we’ll see the beaches reopened to swimming will be Friday.
You can stay on top of the latest beach closures with the Beach Guard website.
