The Portland Water District closed a popular beach on Sebago Lake for two days earlier this week after finding high levels of water-borne bacteria in the water.
Sand Bar Beach, known as a place where boaters congregate on weekends, was closed Monday and Tuesday after E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria were found at levels more than twice the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit.
During their weekly test of the Sand Bar Beach on Sunday, water district officials found 416 colony-forming units of E. coli per 100 milliliters of water sampled. The EPA safe swimming standard is 235 colonies. The beach was immediately shut down as a result.
The beach reopened Wednesday after subsequent testing showed lower counts of both forms of bacteria. Tests revealed bacteria levels had dropped to single digits.
“We test at swimming beaches weekly because when you put human beings in the water, you’re going to get higher bacteria counts,” said Paul Hunt, environmental manager at the water district. “That’s why we have a ‘no bodily contact’ zone in the Lower Bay. The more people you have, the higher the counts will be.”
Hunt attributes the higher-than-usual counts on Sunday to an increase in swimmers and waterfowl in the Sand Bar Beach area. He said warm temperatures act as an incubator to the bacteria. Once the beach was closed, Hunt said levels came back to normal quickly for a number of reasons including radiation from the sun killing the bacteria, circulation flow in the lake, and the cold temperature of the lake naturally killing the bacteria, which thrive in 50A?o Celsius environments.
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