‘The stench is unreal’: stinky sludge carpets popular Burlington beach just in time for a summer heat wave

The floating sludge smelled like something died - and it definitely killed Shannon Baker's swimming plans at Burlington's biggest sandy beach Monday.

The stench is unreal," said the daily swimmer, who arrived at the popular Beachway west of the Burlington lift bridge planning to meet friends for a regular pandemic morning dip in Lake Ontario.

Instead, Baker found brown-and-grey slime" coating the shoreline and assaulting her nostrils with an overpowering odour reminiscent of rotting animal or sewage.

There was no way I was going to go swimming in that."

Baker was surprised by the malodorous mess, in part because the Lake Ontario beach shoreline curving from Burlington into Hamilton is usually the most reliably clean swimming spot in the region.

Last year, the two-kilometre Beachway was closed over poor water quality less than 10 per cent of the summer. Van Wagner's Beach, on the Hamilton side of the lift bridge, was open throughout.

When asked by The Spectator if the murky shallows are safe for swimming now, the Region of Halton pointed to weekly E. coli testing conducted by public health officials. The last water sampling was completed June 2 ... and the results indicated the water was safe for swimming," said spokesperson Rachel Gardner by email.

The region did not hazard a guess as to what might have caused the sludge invasion, but noted questions about maintenance and grooming" of the beach sand itself should go to the City of Burlington.

Ward 1 Burlington councillor Kelvin Galbraith said he had yet to field a complaint about the beach as of late Monday, but noted the city had groomed the sand to pristine" conditions in time for the May long weekend - so the slimy pollution must be relatively recent.

He urged residents to rely on regional test results for safe swimming information.

Baker argued those test results were nearly a week old when she hit the beach - so she opted to trust the sniff-test, instead. She found a cleaner-looking swimming spot just a few kilometres down the shoreline along the Hamilton beach strip.

Not everybody was scared off by the smelly surprise, though. The Spectator watched some determined swimmers tiptoe through the sludge to reach deeper water Monday.

Other residents bemoaned the poorly timed pollution online, noting the early hot weather and pandemic pool restrictions are attracting many families to the beach in hope of heat relief. Some online posters questioned whether a sewage overflow was to blame.

On the upside, neither Hamilton nor Burlington dump sewage - treated or otherwise - directly into Lake Ontario.

Both cities have sewage plants that send treated waste into Hamilton Harbour, while that same bay also takes the brunt of storm-fuelled sewage overflows from old pipes. (Three such overflows - including a five-hour incident - occurred in late May, along with a bypass" of 18 million litres of partially treated sewage from the plant, according to the city's tracking website.)

That's part of the reason Hamilton's Lake Ontario beaches almost always test safe for swimming while harbour beaches are plagued with chronic bacterial pollution.

The harbour typically acts like a big dilution pond for any leftovers that eventually migrate into the lake.

But researcher have noted the risk of pollution plumes" - say from a theoretical disastrous treatment plant failure - escaping into the lake via the shipping canal. Such plumes would likely drift east - sorry, Hamilton - making them a greater risk to Steeltown's beaches and water intake pipes five kilometres away.

Regardless, Baker would love to see more frequent water safety testing at local beaches - particularly during the pandemic. Halton is testing the Beachway once a week, but Hamilton decided last year to drop Lake Ontario beach testing to once a month.

I think we're all anxious to get out in the water, but we worry when we see that (sludge) and smell it," she said.

Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com