Public Service Announcement

Lake Thomas & Fletcher's Lake Swimming Advisory

(Wednesday, August 20, 2008) - The public is advised that water test samples taken earlier this month at the outlets and deep stations of Fletcher's Lake and North and South basins of Lake Thomas, Fall River, detected fecal coliform bacteria levels exceeding provincial and federal recreational guidelines. Neither of these lakes are HRM supervised swimming locations.

Under these conditions, swimming and other forms of contact recreation should be avoided until further notice.

HRM tests the water quality of a limited number of unsupervised lakes for ecological reasons on a seasonal basis only. For a list of the lakes HRM tests for ecological reasons, please check the HRM website at http://www.halifax.ca/environment/lakesandrivers.html.

Only those lakes with HRM supervised beaches are tested on a weekly basis during the swimming season. For a list of the HRM supervised beaches, please visit the HRM website at http://www.halifax.ca/recreation/beaches.html.

The deep station of Grand Lake (Shubenacadie) was well within the recreational guidelines; lakes further upstream are scheduled for sampling and analysis later this month.

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Community Contact:
Councillor Krista Snow
District 2 - Waverley/Fall River/Beaver Bank
860-1206

Technical Contact:

Cameron Deacoff

Environmental Performance Officer

HRM Infrastructure & Asset Management
490-1926