Along with summer swimming comes ShoreRivers Bacteria Monitoring season. It is advised that people not swim 24-48 hours after a major rain.
Every summer, ShoreRivers deploys a team of community scientists to monitor bacterial levels at popular swimming and boating sites, providing vital information on human health risks to the public. Their samples are then processed, according to standard scientific protocols, in ShoreRivers’ in-house labs. The program follows the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard protocols for collecting and analyzing samples. It makes the results of that testing public, informing people about current bacteria levels as they plan their recreational activities in our waterways. Results are posted every Friday, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, at shorerivers.org/swim and on both the organization’s and its individual Riverkeepers’ social media pages.
A second page, shorerivers.org/swimmable-shorerivers-espanol, was established in 2023 to share this program with the Spanish-speaking community. Additionally, 14 signs can be found at public sites around the Eastern Shore that explain the goals of the Swimmable ShoreRivers program and indicate where users can find weekly results in both English and Spanish. These signs (and the program at large) are made possible thanks to funding from the Cornell Douglas Foundation, and ShoreRivers’ Riverkeepers will continue working with local county officials to install more.
Joe Minarick says
Trappe Landing on La Trappe Creek is grotesque! >24,196!!! The second report with Trappe Landing exceeding max measurement! People get into the water while launching boats, people living on the creek have boats and sometimes swimming areas for children, PWCs with one or two people riding come up to the top of the creek. Are crabbers still running trot lines in the creek? What is the expected cause? A failed pump-out station? The Trappe water treatment plant? Other?
Rebecca Ellison says
There need to be real life consequences for all the swim area coliform failures … where is the County Health Department? Or MDE? Or Town of Trappe?
It seems obvious, after two weeks in the tens of thousands range, that Trappe Creek, especially the Town of Trappe sewer outflow into Trappe Creek near the sampling location, needs to be examined by experts and corrective measures taken. What a disgusting outrage.
And don’t forget that there are (apparently) no measurements at any of these locations for the naturally occurring worst of our local bacteria … the ‘flesh-eating’ Vibrio vulnificus (Google it).
Elizabeth Fisher says
The huge number at Trappe Landing caught my eye. Who is responsible for water quality there?