AMESBURY — The sandy shores of Lake Gardner is a favorite spot for locals to beat the heat with a refreshing dip, but sunbathers will have to find a new place to cool off today after high levels of bacteria forced the closure of the beach as of yesterday afternoon.
Word of the closure came down after reports from the town's testing lab, Biomarine out of Gloucester, reported water samples taken several days prior at the Lake Gardner beach recreation area contained extremely high levels of E. coli bacteria — 2,400 parts per 100 ml. That number far exceeds the safe limit of 230 per 100 ml established by the Massachusetts Department of Health and constitutes the highest concentration of E. coli found in the lake over the past several years.
According to Mayoral Chief of Staff Kendra Amaral, the reason for the high result is unknown.
"It could be anything from animal waste, bird waste, from birds that use the water or come through," Amaral said. "It comes from rainstorms, runoff from people's yards. It could come from a number of sources."
The testing lab plans to come out today to retest, but the beach will remain closed until re-testing returns results of less than 1,000 mpn/100ml of water, Amaral said.
"The company that does the testing is going to perform another test tomorrow, and all information will be updated on the town website," she said.
The area's beaches are tested weekly for E. coli concentrations and for the presence of cyanobacteria, a toxic blue algae that could also pose a danger to swimmers if numbers are high enough. Amaral said the Lake Gardner beach area was the only one that tested higher than the allowable limit for E. coli.
"This (test) was taken a day or two ago," Amaral said.
For more information about the beach closure, residents are advised to contact Jack Morris, Regional Health Director at 978-388-8129. For more information about beach water quality and standards, visit www.mass.gov.
According to the town, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health requires beach closures when bacteria exceed 1,000 mpn/100 ml of water and beach advisories when bacteria exceeds 235 mpn/100 ml of water.
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