Nicole White of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health showcases the four different advisories beach-goers should be on the lookout for: Safe, caution, advisory issued, and no data. (Nathan Meyer/980 CJME)

By Nathan Meyer

Water Quality

Website alerts Sask. beach-goers about water quality

Jul 11, 2019 | 3:03 PM

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health has launched a new Healthy Beaches website to alert beach-goers to water quality.

The website monitors 68 public beaches across the province to reduce the risk of swimmers contracting water-borne illnesses, and monitor for pollutants like E. coli and blue-green algae.

Swimmers can see alerts for four different categories: Suitable water quality, caution for when water quality issues are observed, when water is not suitable for swimming, and for no available data.

Nicole White, zoonotic/environmental health consultant with the ministry, said there are a number of things that go into determining what beaches are tested.

“Popularity of beaches is one of them, history of water quality, and whether or not there has been recent flooding in the area that could cause runoff,” said White, who added the things testers most look for are E. coli and blue-green algae.

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E. coli bacteria is excreted from warm-blooded animals that generally exist in lakes, White added. Blue-green algae, which isn’t an algae and in fact is a bacteria, produces toxins which, if ingested, can cause liver damage and lead to weakness and anorexia.

Of the 68 public beaches that are monitored, only 16 currently have information available on contaminants. White said data is lacking because testing isn’t conducted until more crowds are out at the beaches.

“We don’t want to do the sampling ahead of time before people are able to be on site and make use of that information,” said White. “We anticipate that all of the information is going to be there by mid-August.”

White added, however, that the possibility of shutting down a beach due to water quality is rare. Even in such an instance, the beach would likely still be open.

“People can still use the beach,” said White. “But what we do is we’re encouraging people to follow the instructions according to the signs.”

White added that if people are concerned about water quality on a private beach, they can contact an accredited lab to receive testing instructions and get results.