E. coli levels close 10 Beaver Lake swim sites

Several swimming sites around Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas have been indefinitely closed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after a recent water test found raised E. coli levels.

The closures cover 10 different areas, including: Hickory Creek, Horseshoe Bend Campground, Indian Creek, Lost Bridge South, Prairie Creek, Rocky Branch Day Use, Rocky Branch Campground, Dam Site Island, War Eagle and Horseshoe Bend Day Use Area.

The swim beaches at Lost Bridge North and Dam Site Day Use Area remain open.

The Corps has posted signs indicating high bacteria levels at the swim beaches. Park rangers will retest this week, and will reopen the beaches when test results indicate bacteria levels are within an acceptable range.

The decision to close the sites came after one of four annual testings the Army Engineers conduct on the lake water.

“We’ve had [closures] before in past years,” said Jared Trammell, deputy operations manager for the Beaver Lake Project Office. “I’m going to say a lot of it is timing of when you take the samples.”

Two tests are conducted before Memorial Day, one before July 4 and the last before Labor Day. They’re then sent to the Arkansas Health Department.

“This last round, we had a rain event, so we were having inflow coming in,” Trammell said. “E. coli is naturally occurring and due to the human activity and animal activity in the surrounding areas, those numbers will tend to be higher when there’s an inflow event when you’re taking samples and that was the case this time around on samples.”

The threshold for dangerous levels of E. coli is 126 over 100 milliliters.

Trammell said “there was a range of low to medium” for results being over the threshold.

According to Trammell, exposure to enhanced levels of E. coli can lead to nausea and diarrhea.

“There’s a range depending on the person,” he said.

“You can still use the day use areas and the campgrounds are still open, marinas are still open,” Trammell said.