WOLVERINE LAKE, Mich. (WXYZ) — If you feel like there have been more beach closures this year than in the past, you’re not alone. In fact, just today Oakland County alone had four beaches closed.
“If I’m coming this way, obviously I’m going to see the sign. But as I was walking up to my car to move it as you guys were walking up, I didn’t see this,” said Craig Minoletti.
Craig Minoletti lives on Wolverine Lake in Oakland County, just a couple houses down from a beach closed because of high levels of bacteria. He would like more notice of the closure.
“Oakland County should have put caution tape around this entire area right here telling people to stay away from this,” said Minoletti.
I asked him about his experience with beach closures.
“I know this beach in the past has had some issues. But this year, for whatever reason, it seems to be a little more problematic,” added Minoletti.
In fact, in the past month and a half, it has already been closed three times.
I explained to him it’s currently closed because the threshold is 300 colonies of E. coli per 100 liters of water and the daily mean on Monday was 579.
“What’s your reaction to that?” asked WXYZ’s Mike Duffy.
“A little concerning. Obviously, with the amount of small kids that are in this neighborhood who use this, that’s concerning. And up until a couple of hours ago, people were actually using this,” said Minoletti.
Each day, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy publishes a list of closed beaches.
On Wednesday 4 of the 11 were in Oakland County. A few days earlier 9 of 14 closures were also in Oakland County.
“If someone sees, maybe, more Oakland County than they do other counties, what do you attribute that to?” asked Duffy.
“Well, I tell you, we are sampling a hundred beaches on over 70 different lakes here in Oakland County. So, when you have that many lakes that you’re sampling, it’s not going to be unusual to see those closed from time to time,” said Mark Hansell, Oakland County Chief of Public Health.
He attributes recent rises in Oakland due to the weather.
“We did have a large number of closures a couple of weeks ago when that massive rainstorm came in. We had a very, very heavy rain event and it definitely impacted some of our swim areas,” said Hansell.
He explained this scours the land and washes bacteria from things like animal droppings into the lakes.
“So how do they test? asked Duffy.
“We have a staff person wade into the lake itself and we sample at three different points in that swim area,” said Hansell.
“How do they know when bacteria levels have returned to safe?” asked Duffy.
“Once a beach is closed, we will sample it every day that our lab will allow us to sample it until that beach is reopened,” said Hansell.
Now let’s say you’re traveling and you’re unsure about beaches outside of your immediate area. He says just search for Michigan Beach Guard.There you’ll find a database for every beach that is being sampled in the entire state.
