False Creek East is still unsafe for swimming
Pollution levels at the east end of False Creek are almost quadruple safe levels, a year after Vancouver city council passed a motion to make the waterway swimmable by this summer.
The concentration of animal or human fecal contamination registered at 776 in False Creek East early this month, about four times the level of 200 E. coli per 100 millilitres of water considered safe for swimming, according to Vancouver Coastal Health’s latest test numbers.
The pollution hit a high of 926 at the end of May and has hit weekly highs of over 500, from 541 to 855, during six other weeks this spring/summer season already. In 2017, the E. coli levels topped 500 only three weeks in total.
Neither the city nor the health authority could explain why the pollution levels were higher this year over last year.
“The reason for contamination can vary widely,” said health authority spokesman Matt Kieltyka in an email. “Rain is often a factor contributing to beach water pollution,” because heavy rain overwhelms sewers and forces water into waterways.
“The lack of tidal flush in certain areas, increased human and animal activity and hot weather, which can speed up bacterial growth, are also possible causes,” he said.
False Creek is home to several marinas and moored visiting boats that sometimes pump raw sewage into the creek.
A concentration higher than 200 bacteria per 100 ml of water creates an increased risk of gastrointestinal and upper respiratory diseases in swimmers and bathers, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.
All other Metro Vancouver beaches regularly test within the allowable limits but Trout Lake, which last week tested at 141, has registered a 175 concentration in recent years.
Last June, Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer introduced a motion to implement “measures to make high-use waterways in Trout Lake and False Creek safely accessible by swimmers in advance of summer 2018.”
Reimer didn’t respond to requests for comment about the status of that goal.