Beach water test results from last week on Wood Lake have improved and the August 19th swimming and beach water quality advisory has been removed for Beasley Park and Reiswig Park on Wood Lake.
According to Interior Health, lake water is not pristine, and beach water quality can fluctuate due to a number of factors including lake currents, runoff and the outflow of creeks, changing environmental factors and waterfowl and animal waste.
The advisory was put in place on August 19 due to poor water quality but has now been taken down.
Additionally, Water Quality is typically poorer in the summer when the warm weather escalates bacterial growth and swimmers stir up the lake bottom.
A Swimming Advisory is a notice to swimmers that bacterial levels are currently higher than those allowed in the Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality. The maximum allowable number of E. coli bacteria in recreational water is 200 per 100-millilitre sample. IHA recommends an advisory when the bacterial counts geometric mean is high over a period of multiple samples.
For more information on beach water quality, contact Interior Health at 250 862-4200.