Health & Fitness

Kirkland Beach Closes, Redmond Beach Reopens: King County

This week's bacteria tests at local beaches have shown an increase at Kirkland's Juanita Beach.

KIRKLAND, WA — Kirkland's Juanita Beach has mostly remained open throughout the early summer months (except for that one weekend in early June), but King County closed it on Friday after tests showed high bacteria levels.

The county made the decision to close the beach after seeing high bacteria levels across the last three water tests at Juanita Beach. However, the average bacteria county when the test was taken on July 11 was about 546 colony-forming units (CFU) per 1,000 milliliters of water, which is considered in the "moderate" range.

In better beach news, Redmond's Idylwood Beach on Lake Sammamish reopened on Thursday. Echo Lake beach in Shoreline was closed on Wednesday, and Lake Washington beaches in Bellevue and Renton remained closed as of Friday.

Find out what's happening in Kirklandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

During the last Juanita Beach closure on June 5, city staff noted the high number of birds near the water, which may have contributed to the bacteria levels.

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