CLEVELAND — The swimming season has arrived in Northeast Ohio as Memorial Day kicks off the unofficial start to summer.
While the temperatures aren’t ideal for taking a swim in Lake Erie right now, the National Weather Service has also issued a Beach Hazards Statement to warn swimmers of a high risk for rip currents and hazardous conditions for small craft.
Plus, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has listed the water quality as “poor” for both Edgewater Beach and Villa Angela Beach as of Monday morning.
RIP CURRENTS
The impacted areas include lakeshore communities in the following counties from now into Tuesday.
- Cuyahoga
- Lake
- Lorain
- Ashtabula
- Erie
- Lucas
- Ottawa
“Wind and wave action will cause currents on the lakeshore,” according to the National Weather Service. “Swimmers should not enter the water. Currents can carry swimmers away from shore through a sand bar and along structures extending out into the lake.”
POOR WATER QUALITY
Edgewater Beach
The percent exceedance probability of the bacteriological criteria for Edgewater Beach is 74.7%. The predicted E. coli concentration for Edgewater Beach is 143 MPN/100mL.
Threshold: 80 MPN/100mL
Villa Angela Beach
The percent exceedance probability of the bacteriological criteria for Villa Angela Beach is 72.3%. The predicted E. coli concentration for Villa Angela Beach is 231 MPN/100mL.
Threshold: 110 MPN/100mL
“Predicted E. coli concentrations are based on modeling results generated using Virtual Beach 3.0,” according to the Northern Ohio Regional Sewer District. “This modeling software tends to underestimate the E. coli concentration. Therefore, the above thresholds were selected during model development to correct for this underestimation. These thresholds were selected to optimize model sensitivity (number of correct exceedance predictions) and accuracy (overall number of correct predictions) using data from previous years as test data. The values of these thresholds are based on the amount of correction required for the individual models and are not representative of beach water quality expectations. When the predicted E. coli concentration generated by Virtual Beach 3.0 exceeds these threshold limits, the true E. coli concentration is expected to exceed the Bathing Water Recreational Criteria of 235 MPN/100mL.”