If you decide to swim at the popular Rogers Cove beach in Peterborough’s East City this summer, you’ll be doing so at your own risk.
Not only will swimming at the beach no longer be supervised by city lifeguards, but the regional health unit will no longer be testing water quality at the beach.
In prior years, the City of Peterborough has paid lifeguards to supervise the city’s two public beaches — one at Rogers Cove and the other at Beavermead Park — daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. from the last week of June to the end of August.
However, during its deliberations on the draft 2025 budget, city council decided to eliminate lifeguard services at Rogers Cove to save $40,000. Lifeguard services are still provided at the Beavermead Park beach.
Also in prior years, Peterborough Public Health tested the water quality of the city’s two public beaches on a daily basis from Monday to Friday. However, concurrent with the city’s decision to eliminate lifeguard services, the health unit will no longer be conducting water quality testing at Rogers Cove. Weekday testing will continue at Beavermead Park.
People who plan to swim at Rogers Cove beach this summer should be aware that, on several occasions in 2023 and 2024, the health unit closed the Rogers Cove beach because of suspected toxic blue-green algae blooms.
The health unit’s beach water testing began on Monday (June 2) and, aside from Rogers Cove, will be regularly testing public beaches in Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations and the city and county of Peterborough to ensure the water quality conditions are safe for recreational use.
The program will run through to the end of August, with most public beaches in the county sampled at least once a week and a few sampled once a month.
Results take approximately 24 hours to be analyzed. If levels of bacteria exceed recommended thresholds for recreational water use, the beach will be posted as unsafe and to avoid becoming ill, people should not use the beach for swimming. If a significant risk to human health is identified, such as a toxic spill or the identification of a harmful algae bloom, a beach may be closed to the public.
Stay tuned to kawarthaNOW in June for The Beach Report™, our weekly report of the results of water quality testing at beaches in the greater Kawarthas region, including the city and county of Peterborough, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, Northumberland County, and Hastings County.
