Morley beach deemed unsafe to swim at

Ken Johnston
Editor

It seems the water woes for the Rainy River did not end last week, but moved up stream.
With the lifting of the Unsafe Swimming warning at Rainy River’s Hannam Park beach June 29, 2001, swimmers flocked back to the water to cool off as summer temperatures began to soar. However last Friday, July 6, 2001, the Northwestern Health Unit placed the same warning on the beach at Morley Park, just south of Stratton.
Bill Limerick of NWHU, said that they had high counts of ecoli and coliform bacteria and were forced to issue the warning, which in effect closes the beach.
The problem at Stratton’s park is the same that forced the closure of Rainy River’s for about two weeks. Limerick said that they were surprised to find the problem in Morley after the warning was lifted in Rainy River. However he attributed the high counts to the higher than normal water levels and runoffs this spring. He said that heavy rains could have caused someone upstream to have problems with their septic field which could have caused the problem. He noted that NWHU was conducting tests Monday and should have the results Wednesday. If they get two clean samples they will remove the warnings. If there continues to be a problem NWHU will begin looking up stream to see if there is some seepage causing the problem.
Until the warning is lifted NWHU recommends that people do not swim there as they could have problems with eye irritations from the water or
gastrointestinal problems if the water is ingested.
While he noted that it is hard to close a beach right before a weekend when temperatures soared into the 30+°C or high 80s F range. But their primary concern is public health.