Usually a busy spot on a warm summer afternoon, Chocolate Lake Beach was nearly empty Wednesday.
Signs at the entrance warning of high bacteria levels stopped Olivia Burke and her friend in their tracks.
“We just wanted to lay in the sun and then hopefully go for a quick dip to cool off as well,” Burke says.
Same thing for Catherine Gabanna. She had to re-strap her paddle board to her car and find another place to go with her son.
“The bacteria level is, I guess, too high and they recommend no swimming which we are going to obey and go find another lake,” she says.
The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) follows the Canadian guidelines for recreational water.
Samples taken Tuesday exceed safety levels.
“It’s fecal bacteria, it’s E. coli that we monitor for. So it was a high E. coli concentration at the beach,” says HRM’s water resource specialist, Elizabeth Montgomery.
The city closed Kearney Lake Beach and Papermill Lake Beach Wednesday afternoon for the same reason.
There are issues in the harbour too.
“Untreated wastewater and stormwater is now flowing out into the harbour,” says Jeff Myrick, Halifax Regional Water Commission’s communications manager.
Myrick says that’s caused by the failure of an emergency valve at the pumping station that serves, the north end of Halifax, Clayton Park and Fairview.
“The rest of the system is working fine, material is going directly to the wastewater treatment facilities,” he says.
Myrick says they’re waiting for the new valve to be delivered and the problem can’t be fixed until they get it, which looks like Friday morning at the earliest.
To reduce the environmental impact, Halifax Water is asking people living in these areas to reduce the amount of water they’re flushing and pouring into their drains.
Myrick is unsure about how much untreated storm and wastewater is flowing into the harbour and as a precaution, a swimming area at Queen’s Marque that has been growing in popularity has been taped off.
Myrick is unsure how long it will take for the harbour to once again be considered safe for recreational use.
