Eleanor WhitakerThe Detroit News
After a stormy week, 27 Michigan beaches were either closed or under a contamination advisory due to high bacteria levels in the water as of Wednesday.
Jeff Johnson, a public information officer with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said the higher than normal levels of rainfall washed contaminants such as goose poop, gull poop, or sewage waste into lakes and streams, which increased the number of E. coli bacteria in the water.
"It is quite common to see a spike in beach closures after a rain event," Johnson said. "We have had a lot of rain in Southeast Michigan lately, and that is one of the biggest factors that drives high bacteria counts because of the bird droppings."
E. coli can cause gastrointestinal problems, fever, or rashes if swimmers swim in contaminated water. Johnson said the presence of E. coli can also be an indicator that even more harmful bacteria could be living in the water.
Of the 27 beaches that are closed or under advisories — all of which are listed on Michigan Beach Guard, a website run by EGLE that displays closures and advisories of nearly 2,000 of Michigan's public and private beaches — seven are in Oakland County, the county with the most lakes in the state.
In Macomb County, two beaches were closed — Baypoint Beach at Stony Creek Metropark and the St. Clair Shores Memorial Park Beach. In Wayne County, Belle Isle beach has been closed since Monday. Michigan Beach Guard is based on information provided local county health departments. Here's the full list:
- Saginaw Bay-Lake Huron - Singing Bridge Beach Arenac
- Lake St. Clair - St. Clair Shores Memorial Park Beach Macomb
- Sugden Lake - Oakridge Subdivision Oakland
- Dumont Lake - Dumont Lake County Park Beach Allegan
- St. Clair River - Chrysler Park Beach St. Clair
- Lake Huron - Holland Road Beach St. Clair
- Thornapple River - Tyden Park Barry
- Gun Lake - Yankee Springs Recreation Area Campground Beach Barry
- Davis Lake - Brugioni Park & Beach Oakland
- Stony Creek Lake-Impoundment - Stony Creek Metropark-Baypoint Beach Macomb
- Detroit River - Belle Isle Beach Wayne
- Lake Michigan - Grand Beach Berrien
- Lake Huron - Lexington County Park Sanilac
- Lake Huron - Lexington Beach Sanilac
- Lake Michigan - Sleeping Bear Dunes-Platte Point Bay Benzie
- Lake Huron - Fort Gratiot County Park St. Clair
- Lake Huron - Keewadhin Road Beach St. Clair
- Lake Huron - Conger-Lighthouse Beach St. Clair
- Lake Huron - Lakeside Beach St. Clair
- Sylvan Lake - Ferndale Oakland
- Teeple Lake - Teeple Lake Recreation Area - Highland State Park Oakland
- Carter Lake - Thelma Spencer Park Oakland
- Cass Lake - Cass Lake Woods Oakland
- Walker Lake - Emerald Lake Homeowners Association - Sandshore Oakland
- Ross Lake - Beaverton City Park Gladwin
- Lake Superior - Brimley State Park Chippewa
- Tawas Bay - East Tawas City Park Iosco
Johnson said although the number of contaminated beaches is high, it is not abnormal for this time of year.
Mark Hansell, a public health chief at the Oakland County Health Department, said the county tests the water quality of lakes once a week. If the samples show levels of E. coli that exceed a certain threshold, the beach will be closed or put under an advisory, and be tested every day until the contamination levels return to normal.
"If the sample comes back unsafe or above that water quality standard, we will sample it every day until that level of bacteria comes back down to a safe level," Hansell said.
The Oakland County Health Department is helping to pilot a new E. coli water test called Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction, according to Hansell. The standard measure of testing counts individual bacteria and takes time for results to come back, but qPCR tests detect the DNA of E. coli and can return results within a day.
"The test is very promising, because the major benefit of the qPCR method is we get results much more quickly," Hansell said.
The large amount of rain this past week was due to Hurricane Beryl, which touched down in Texas on July 8, but quickly depleted to a tropical depression-level storm as it swept across the Midwest last week, according to the National Weather Service.
Brian Cromwell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Detroit office, said the Detroit area averaged 3-4 inches of rain in the past week. Areas such as Flint, St. Clair County, and Washtenaw County received up to 8 inches of rain.
"This past week has been a relatively big event for Michigan," Cromwell said. "We dealt with a lot of flooding with the excessive rainfall that was falling, but in terms of a larger trend, it's not necessarily abnormally high."
Cromwell said the Detroit area has received an average of 5.8 inches of rain over the past summer. This number is high compared to the amount of normal rainfall received during the summer, but not abnormally so. The region typically receives 6.5 inches of rain during the summer.
"We're on track for above normal year in terms of rainfall, but that is not out of the ordinary," Cromwell said.
