Don’t remove ‘unsafe for swimming signs’ at beaches: Hamilton councillors

Signs that flag unsafe water due to bacteria will remain at Hamilton's seven monitored beaches despite public health's plan to remove them.

Public health wants to replace the signs that can be flipped to read unsafe for swimming" with ones that refer the public to the city's website for the latest E. coli status.

But councillors argued Monday not everyone will tap into smartphone data to look that up before taking a dip.

There could be older adults taking their grandchildren to the beach for a swim, Coun. Brad Clark said.

It's unlikely that they're simply going to be looking up the website to verify that the water's clean," he said. So I have some serious concerns about this policy moving forward."

In a report, staff noted concerns that the flip signs create an unfavourable image of City of Hamilton public beaches" and that no surrounding health units follow the practice.

Hamilton's existing signs don't feature information about beach conditions that can lead to higher bacterial levels.

The redesigned ones, for instance, explain with illustrations that recent heavy rainfall or a large number of birds can cause E. coli to spike.

That's important because it can sometimes take 48 hours for results from weekly water samples to come back, Richard MacDonald, manager of food and water safety, told the board of health. We're trying to raise a little bit more awareness."

But there's still the digital divide" for those who don't have mobile access to decide if they want to go for a swim, Coun. Nrinder Nann said. I think that's really concerning for me."

The unsafe" status differs from beach closures, which the presence of blue-green algae, a toxic cyanobacteria, can trigger, MacDonald said. It's not only unsafe, it's closed."

Last year, Hamilton's beaches on Lake Ontario were open for swimming between 87 and 93 per cent of the time, he said.

That means, nine times of 10, approximately, we're dealing with a great beach," Coun. Sam Merulla said.

The perception with new Hamiltonians is that you can't swim at Hamilton beaches, which is laughable."

The board directed staff to report back on nondigital methods to better keep the public in the safety loop.

The flip signs will remain while 28 new ones are installed at a cost of roughly $1,200.

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com