BSRA Concerns and Goals
Shoreline residents in Bluewater are concerned about water
quality in Lake Huron and BSRA echoes this concern.
BSRA's long term goal is to bring about significant improvement
in the water quality of the Lake Huron beaches and the ravines
in the Municipality of Bluewater. This improvement would result
in water testing results consistently meeting the provincial
water quality standard (<100 E. coli cfu per 100 ml of water)
100% of the time.
BSRA's shorter term goal is to bring about a continuing
reduction in the percentage of time that ravine and lake water
testing results exceed the provincial standard.
Water Quality Testing
Water Quality testing is currently done by the Ausable
Bayfield Conservation Authourity (ABCA). Testing is done on the
same day each week and spread over a 13 week period beginning
mid June and ending the week before the Labour Day weekend.
Testing follows the protocol of the Ontario Ministry of Health (MoH),
samples are taken at five different spots at a beach, and the
geometric mean (of those five samples) is computed. The Ministry
of Health considers that a geometric mean of 100 or less for the
day's five samples is acceptable.
Funding for the testing is covered by a grant from the
Municipality of Bluewater. Testing over time establishes whether
remedial efforts to improve water quality is effective.
BSRA sponsored test results are at this link.
Click Here. The tests done by the
Huron County Health Unit (HCHU) were in years 2003-5. The tests
done by ABCA started in 2006 and continue this year. BSRA also
has test results before 2003. Those tests were done by
volunteers. Currently BSRA tests at 4 ravine(drain) mouth
locations: Wildwood, Houston Heights, St. Josephs and Ridgeway.
Five tests are done on the beach and one in the drain. The beach
tests follow the MoH protocol. Two tests are done north of the
ravine, one offshore at the mouth of the ravine and two tests
south of the ravine. Each test is 50 paces apart at waist
height. One test is done in the ravine, at the bottom of the
bank (top of the beach). Click here for the
ABCA 2006 report,
the
ABCA 2007 report,
ABCA 2008 report,
ABCA 2009 report
and the ABCA2010
report. The Ridgeway
Drain Water Quality Improvement Project report (January
2011).
 The
HCHU tests public beaches in Huron County (click
here for their Beach Water Quality web pages). The results
of those tests are made available to the public. BSRA has
graphed (click on the graph) the test results at 3 beaches south
of Bayfield. The Bayfield Ratepayers Association has graphed the
results for 2 beaches in Bayfield. The graphs show the number of
times the weekly tests were over the provincial standard for
recreational water. The
Blue Flag
standard for water quality at a beach requires, among other
criteria, that the beach test under the provincial standard 80%
of the time.
DNA testing: The Pergul Drain (part of the St. Joseph
ravine/watershed) was tested in 2005 for DNA. The testing was
conducted by GAP Laboratories for BSRA with funding from a grant
from the Municipality of Bluewater. The testing indicated that
E.coli from sources upstream were also in the beach water near
the mouth of the drain.
Click here for
the report.
Click here for more
information on
facilities for DNA comparison testing. |
