Don't swim this weekend; it's unsafe

Stay out of the water this weekend. No swimming, wading, kayaking, etc. That’s the effective recommendation of the Anne Arundel Department of Health, according to its website:

“A Preemptive Advisory is in effect for June 7-9, 2013: After rainfall, all Anne Arundel County beaches are under a no swimming/no direct water contact advisory for at least 48 hours due to predicted elevated bacteria levels from rainwater runoff and increased health risks.”

Blame the rain. As I sit writing this on Friday mid-day it’s raining. Tropical moisture associated with Andrea is expected to dump more rain through this evening, and potentially cause flooding problems.

Or blame me and you. Rain picks up all manner of filth and pollutants we humans leave on the urban and suburban landscape and discharge them straight—and fast—into nearby creeks, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay: dog waste, lawn fertilizer, pesticides and trash to name a few. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation issued a statement Friday, commending the County Council for approving a stormwater fee to address this problem.

(Or sometimes blame wildfowl. Geese and ducks can deposit sufficient waste in a shallow creek to cause unsafe water conditions for human recreation.)

Health officials caution residents not to come into contact with any water in the state of Maryland for a full 48 hours after a significant storm such as the one outside my window, because the resulting polluted runoff contains harmful levels of bacteria which can cause stomach ailments or worse.

Sorry for the doom and gloom, but such is the state of our environment. And such is my first weekly “Bad Water” blog of the summer. I will report weekly (usually late Friday afternoon) about which public beaches and private swimming areas might be best avoided over the weekend, using data from water monitoring done Wednesday. The monitoring is done at public beaches by county staff, and at private swimming areas by organized volunteers on the various county creeks and Bay neighborhoods.

The monitoring done this week (before the big storm moved in) showed elevated and unsafe levels of bacteria from rainfalls earlier in the week. Here are those unsafe beaches and swimming areas, and readings for enterococci cfu/100 ml (they show results from private swim areas only as the county had not posted any results for public beaches as of 2 pm Friday):

SEVERN

Admiral Heights, Dewey Drive – 156

Old Severna Park – 190

MAGOTHY

Dividing Creek – 108

Mill Creek – 228

Longview – 376

Magothy Manor – 210

SOUTH

Londontown Beach 5 – 270

Pine Whiff – 408

Davidsonville Wildlife Sanctuary – 1890

RHODE

Riverclub Community Dock and Beach - 132

Enterococci are bacteria that are found in the GI tract of warm-blooded animals, which includes all birds and mammals.  Their presence in surface water indicates recent contamination with fecal waste.  Counts are expressed as cfu or colony-forming units.  Counts greater than 104/100 ml are shown in red as they indicate that water is not suitable for recreational use. 

Both the county health department and a network of volunteers test over 100 public beaches and other areas around the county for bacteria. The results from the county tests are put online here, and for the volunteer tests here for Severn and Magothy rivers, here for South River, and here for Rhode/West River.  All the sites listed above were tested by Watershed Stewards.

Rain washes human and animal waste from the landscape. For that reason, county and state officials warn residents not to swim or come into contact with water for 48 hours after a significant rain.

Bacteria that is ingested can cause an upset stomach. In some cases more harmful bacteria coming into contact with open wounds can cause serious infection.

Have fun, stay safe.