Swimmers may soon know just when it's safe to go back in the water.
For decades, beachside communities have faced a major problem: By the time a water test determines the lake is too unhealthy to swim in, it's 48 hours later and the water is now fine.
But now Prof. Eva Pip, a biologist at the University of Winnipeg, believes she may have found what has eluded researchers worldwide for years -- a quick, reliable test to determine whether there's too much unhealthy bacteria in the water.
"We were able to construct a model we can use to predict total coliforms," Pip said.
"This is a mathematical model," she said. "If you take a water sample, measure the dissolved organic matter, take the temperature, the nitrogen and phosphorus levels... if you know these things, you can get a pretty accurate number for coliforms."
What's more, Pip said the tests are easy to perform right on the beach instead of in a laboratory.
"Temperature you can measure right there, while the nitrogen and phosphate is easy to do in the field. You get the dissolved organic matter and then you've got it. It is 97 per cent accurate."
Dwight Williamson, Manitoba's water management director, said the province is interested in what Pip has found out because currently there are only two methods to determine if E-coli levels are high: a chemical one that takes 48 hours to get the results, and an observation one, where it's usually seen that E-coli levels are higher when the wind blows from the north and forces water levels higher on the beach.
Williamson added that the province, which each summer takes its own water samples to check levels of E-coli at beach locations in the southern basin of the lake, will try replicating Pip's method.
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