National beach report on water-quality monitoring puts N.B. behind most provinces

A national report on water-quality monitoring finds New Brunswick lagging behind Nova Scotia and most bigger provinces in monitoring recreational water quality.

The Canada Beach Report highlights improvements that are needed to some of Canada's beaches, including New Brunswick's Parlee Beach, which wasn't following federal guidelines last summer, allowing the beach to remain open to swimming on several days when it should have been closed.

• The secret history of Parlee Beach water testing 
• Murray Beach worse than Parlee, health minister says 
• E. coli at Mactaquac Beach more than double acceptable levels last weekend 

Last year, Murray Beach Provincial Park remained open to swimming on at least 26 days it should have been closed under federal guidelines, and no signs were posted to let swimmers know.

"Saskatchewan and New Brunswick are playing a bit of catch-up mode right now, where British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia have systems already in place," said Lois Corbett, executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

The council gathered the New Brunswick information for the study.

Report from coast to coast

The report was produced by non-governmental organizations within Canada but was based on government data.

The purpose of the project, which started about six months ago, was to get a clearer picture of the monitoring of Canada's beaches.

Corbett said this was the first time such a report has been produced in Canada.

"[It's] to paint that picture of what we know and what we don't know," she said.

Different data reported

The report also found that not all provinces reported data in the same way.

"You may need to have a reinterpretation factor going on if you're swimming at … Wasaga Beach in Ontario, versus using the data to assess whether or not to dip your toe into Killarney Lake in New Brunswick," she said.

She said the report also shows, that in New Brunswick, it can be challenging to access information pertaining to water quality in a public way.  

The gap right now is taking the information from the tests that are being completed and putting it up in a publicly, accessible way.-Lois Corbett, Conservation Council of New Brunswick

"In New Brunswick ... it was very hard to get access in a public way to data, that didn't mean that water-quality testing wasn't happening, you just couldn't go and find it," Corbett said.

"You couldn't find it on the Department of Environment's website, you couldn't find it at a beach site." 

Earlier this year, the New Brunswick government announced it was updating its water-quality testing and rating system, and its communications with the public, after the problems uncovered about Parlee Beach last summer.

Recently, E. coli levels at Mactaquac Beach near Fredericton were found to be more than double what they should've been last Friday, and the ensuing no swimming advisory lasted the weekend.

Although Corbett applauded the province for taking steps to improve the monitoring system, she said information still needs to be conveyed properly to the public through signs and on the government's website.

"The gap right now is taking the information from the tests that are being completed and putting it up in a publicly, accessible way," she said. "They are making steps to complete that picture."

Hard to predict weather

The report also said that with few exceptions, provinces and territories in Canada do not notify the public in the event of a sewage bypass that could increase contamination in a recreational water location.

Nor do they notify the public when sewers overflow, contaminating recreational waters and increasing the risk of illness.   

"Part of it is the fundamental truth that it's hard to always predict the weather and always predict when your sewer overflows are going to happen," Corbett said. "It's going to happen when you have a lot of rain … the majority of the pollution that affects whether or not we can swim is waste."

Corbett said she's hopeful new technology will enable municipalities across the province to report on sewer overflows, to let health officials know an incident has occurred, which would later be directed to the public.