Sandy Lake Beach, rrom the description of on HRM website
UPDATE – Just checked HRM website. Sandy Lake Beach is Open Today (Aug 23, 2024)
So read a report by Dan Ahlstrand in The Coast, Aug 14, 2024:
Three beaches closed to swimming due to water quality
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) issued recreational water quality advisory on Wednesday for Oakfield Park beach in Oakfield, Penhorn beach in Dartmouth and Sandy Lake beach in Bedford until further notice due to high bacteria levels in the water.
HRM’s website shows “Risk Advisory in Effect” for 5 of 19 supervised beaches in HRM; these include Albro Lake Beach and Kidston Lake Beach in addition to the three cited above. As well Cunard Pond Beach by Williams Lake in Halifax is cited as closed due to Blue Green algae
Extract from HRM List of status Supervised Beaches showing the 5 beaches under “Risk Advisory” due to bacterial contamination, one beach “Closed” due to Blue-green algae and an example of the 13 beaches still “Open”, accessed 8 am Aug 15, 2024.
In regard to bacterial contamination, the HRM website provides this info:
Bacteria testingWhen water samples show an exceedance of the guideline, measured E. coli bacteria concentrations will be posted with beach advisories in public service announcements and on the halifax.ca website.
While a swimming advisory is in effect, use of the beach area will be at the user’s own risk, lifeguards will be present on site to advise against swimming, and swimming lessons will be cancelled.
In 2024, Halifax Regional Municipality has adopted Health Canada’s updated Guidelines for Recreational Water Quality. The acceptable levels of bacteria in recreational water are shown above.
Swimming and other primary contact activities are not recommended when a water quality advisory is in effect. More information about how concentrations are measured, analyzed, and use to determine a beach’s water quality status can be found in the municipality’s 2024 Supervised Beach Water Quality Monitoring Protocol.
According to the protocal, five samples are collected weekly at each beach, and an advisory for bacteria is issued when “The geometric mean (geomean) of five test results for a given beach is above the acceptable concentration for the appropriate indicator bacteria”.
Table 2 from HRM document Supervised Beach Water Quality Monitoring ProtocolSummer 2024
Appendix B in the HRM document Supervised Beach Water Quality Monitoring ProtocolSummer 2024 lists all Beach Closure in 2023 with details of when the closures started and finished. Sandy Lake is cited twice amongst the total of 22 closures for 2023:
Extract from Appendix B: Beach Monitoring Summary 2023
Clearly it’s good to check HRM’s Supervised beach status updates before setting out for a day at the Beach.
Thx for your care and thoroughness of reporting, HRM!