NEWS RELEASE
RESCUE LAKE SIMCOE COALITION
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What’s going on with Lake Simcoe’s water quality and beach closures? There were numerous blue-green algae outbreaks reported in Georgina and Innisfil in July this year, but unless you went to a public beach, or checked the health unit’s water monitoring pages, you wouldn’t know.
Thirty-two beaches on Lake Simcoe are monitored for water quality throughout the summer, and advisories are posted on the Simcoe-Muskoka health unit website, the York Region website and the Durham Region website. Although testing is typically conducted weekly from June to Labour Day weekend, the frequency of water sampling can change based on historical data, weather conditions and complaints.
While this monitoring may be useful for beach-goers, there is currently no information available about the water quality in other access areas to the lake. This is a concern for residents, cottagers, tourists, and the economy they support.
The Island Grove Swim Team operates from a public dock in Georgina, and founding member Andrew Edge has concerns about the lack of communication.
“You come to a public access spot, other windows to the lake, and there is no testing, no advisories. There’s a lot of spots like this in Georgina where the residents don’t know what’s going on right now,” says Edge.
Edge’s passion for open water swimming began over the pandemic when it was difficult to access public pools. Alongside Dan Thompson, the two formed an open-water swim team in Georgina. The team meets three times a week at Island Grove for two to three hours of long-distance swimming. They swim from ice out to ice in, often starting in late March and ending in early December. Their frequent interactions with the lake allow them to provide valuable insights into how water quality in Lake Simcoe has changed over the years.
Pathogens such as E. coli can come from feces and manure runoff, and are stirred up by waves and heavy rainfall. The bacteria can cause ear, eye, nose, skin, and throat infections as well as stomach sickness. If E. coli levels exceed the current Ontario guideline of 200 bacteria per 100 mL of water, a swimming advisory will be posted on the regional health unit’s website and at the beach.
The Swim Guide website provides a shocking but important detail that you can’t find on the Simcoe-Muskoka, York, or Durham Region webpages. There is a disclaimer that all data prior to 2018 is based on a stricter guideline that only required a mean of 100 E. coli per 100 mL. This little known fact, that Ontario moved the goalposts to double the previous standard, creates the impression that beach health has improved from 10 years ago. How can Lake Simcoe beach-goers be confident that it is safe to swim when six years ago bacteria levels were considered dangerous at only half of the current standard?
Taking the more lenient regulations into account, beach water quality has declined since the high average success rates in 2018 and 2019. The science behind this is supported by Thompson’s personal experience:
“I went swimming last night (July 31) and really couldn’t see the bottom. This is something we’d normally see mid to late August. We’ve found that this year, the lake has digressed quicker than other years,” he says.
The people of Lake Simcoe deserve accessible and transparent information regarding water quality as well as regulations that prioritize health and safety. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition has been urging the provincial government to release their long overdue review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. This review would utilize beach closure frequencies as indicators of any progress made towards water-quality related objectives.
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