How Safe is Silver Lake for Summer Swimming?

Several days of blazing temperatures are in the books, but that’s just a start of the hot weather as summer is officially underway. There is one prime location for Wilmington residents to cool off, but Patch readers want to know – just how safe is for swimming?

For the answer to that question, we turned to Director of Public Health Shelly Newhouse, who said the Health Department keeps a very close eye on the popular swimming spot.

According to Newhouse, the Health Department performs tests on the water of the baby beach and main beach every Tuesday, looking for elevated levels of E. coli bacteria.

Newhouse said the town has not been forced to shut down the beach in many years, and she said it is thanks in part to improvement to drainage, work done in the parking lot area and more.

“The higher the swimmer load, the more of a chance there is of higher bacteria,” said Newhouse. “We like to promote safe swimming, and we monitor things very closely.”

When the town takes water samples each week, they look for the number of colonies in each sample. E. Coli cannot exceed 230 colonies per 100 milliliters, and so far this year no collections have exceeded 20 colonies.

In addition, Newhouse said the department keeps an eye on algae levels throughout the summer. Algae tends to cause problems later in the summer because it is caused by extended periods of continually warm weather.

High levels of algae have caused the closure of Silver Lake in the recent years, but the good news is that when that does happen, a good rain storm or several days of cooler weather can alleviate the problem.

Newhouse’s biggest piece of advice for swimmers is to play their role in keeping the lake clean. To help prevent elevated bacteria levels, Newhouse said to be sure children wear swim diapers and asked residents to remember that there is no bathing at the beach.

“Silver Lake is a really nice resource that Wilmington has,” said Newhouse. “As long as people clean up after themselves and help prevent runoff, it helps control bacteria levels. Practicing clean swimming helps do that.”