With summer officially beginning on Sunday, both the Peterborough County-City Health Unit and the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit are now regularly testing the water quality of area beaches to ensure they are safe for swimming. You can see all the results on a single page on kawarthaNOW.com — we retrieve them directly from the websites of both health units, so they are always up to date.
However, it’s important to remember that the posted test results may not always reflect current water quality conditions. Water samples can take one to three days to process and heavy rainfall, high winds or wave activity, large numbers of waterfowl near a beach, or large numbers of swimmers can rapidly change water quality.
So, regardless of the posted test results, you should check current conditions before deciding to use a beach. You should also monitor other factors that might suggest a beach is unsafe to use, such as floating debris, oil, discoloured water, bad odours, and excessive weed growth.
In the City of Peterborough, Public Health Inspectors sample the beaches at Rogers Cove and Beavermead every business day, and public beaches in the County of Peterborough are sampled at least once a week (except for Chandos Beach, Quarry Bay Beach, and White’s Beach which are sampled at least once in June, July, and August).
In the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, and Haliburton County, beaches are tested weekly and results are posted by the end of Thursday each week throughout June, July, and August.
Water samples are tested for E. coli bacteria, an indicator of fecal contamination in the water. If bacterial levels in the water are higher than those considered acceptable by the Ontario government, the beach will be “posted” as unsafe for recreational use, including swimming. If a beach is posted as unsafe, the health unit will post place signs along the beach to indicate this.
You can contribute to maintaining good water quality at public beaches by picking up after your dog, not feeding waterfowl, not letting children swim in soiled diapers, and not leaving garbage behind (including soiled diapers).
In the City and County of Peterborough, the following beaches will be tested:
- Beavermead (2011 Ashburnham Drive)
- Rogers Cove (131 Maria Street)
- Buckhorn Beach ( John St., Buckhorn)
- Chandos Beach (Hwy 620, North Kawartha)
- Crowe’s Line Beach (Crowe’s Line Rd., Harvey)
- Curve Lake Lance Wood Park (Whetung St E, Curve Lake)
- Curve Lake Henrys Gumming (Chemong St S, Curve Lake)
- Douro (205 Douro Second Line, Douro-Dummer)
- Ennismore (1053 Ennis Road, Ennismore)
- Jones Beach ( 908 Jones Beach Road, Bridgenorth)
- Hiawatha (1 Lakeshore Rd, Hiawatha)
- Lakefield (100 Hague Boulevard, Lakefield)
- Norwood (12 Belmont St, Norwood)
- Quarry Bay (1986 Northey’s Bay Rd, Woodview)
- Sandy Beach (Lakehurst Road, Curve Lake)
- Selwyn (2251 Birch Island Road, Selwyn)
- Squirrel Creek Conservation Area (2445 Wallace Point Rd, South Monaghan)
- Warsaw Caves (289 Caves Rd, Warsaw)
- White’s Beach (Clearview Dr, Galway)
In the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, and Haliburton County, the following beaches will be tested:
- Blanchard’s Road Beach
- Coboconk Lions Park Beach
- Beach Park
- Riverview Beach Park
- Carden Township Beach
- Foxe’s Beach
- Dalton Township Beach
- Centennial Park West
- Omemee Beach
- Birch Point
- Bond Street
- Killarney Bay
- Sturgeon Point Beach
- Elliott Falls Beach
- Head Lake
- Norland Bathing Area
- Sandbar Beach
- Burnt River Beach (Somerville)
- Burnt River Four Mile Lake
- Centennial Beach (Verulam)
- Verulam Recreational Park
Water quality testing continues until the end of August.
For more information, contact the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (613-475-0933 or toll free at 1-866-888-4577) or visit www.hkpr.on.ca, or contact the Peterborough County-City Health Unit (705-743-1000 or toll free at 1-877-743-0101) or visit www.pcchu.ca.
