The Rural Voice, 2004-01, Page 19Clinton meeting explaining there's
always a 24-hour delay between
testing ant when a beach can be
posted to•warn swimmers (it takes
18-22 hours to incubate the bacteria
in a water sample). Since these
beaches regularly had high E. coli
levels after a rainfall he felt it was
best if swimmers knew in advance to
be careful under those' conditions.
Brodksy said there is really no
"safe" level of bacteria in
'recreational water. The provincial
standard for beach water of 100 E.
coli bacteria in 100 ml of water is an
arbitrary number that doesn't indicate
safety, he said. For instance, the
drinking water standard is zero E.
coli per 100 ml.
"There is danger whenever you
stick your head in an open water
source," he warned. Even if all
bacterial infection of streams from
farms could be cleaned up and all
taulty sewage and septic systems
could be fixed "There are no toilet -
trained animals or birds."
Brodsky also noted that testing
standards are for all E. coli
strains and a higher count
doesn't necessarily mean the
presence of E. coli 157:H7, the
bacteria which killed seven people
and made more than 2,000 ill in
Walkerton in May 2000. Taking an
E. coli count only shows that the
bacteria came from warm-blooded
'animals or humans, he said, with all
such creatures requiring some forms
of E. coli in their gut to exist.
The testing for bacteria also
doesn't take into account some other
potential dangers like viruses and
parasites in the water, he said.
Dr. Shu Chen, a University of
Guelph microbiologist explained the
university's attempts to develop ways
to identify if E. coli came from
humans or animals. So far university
researchers haven't been able to
come up with a fool -proof way of
fingerprinting the DNA of bacteria or
finding a marker to demonstrate
whether the E. coli came from
humans for animals, she said. All
methods of testing have their pros
and cons, she said because there are
so many different types of E. coli. To
identify if E. coli comes from
humans or animals. a testing lab must
build up a library of local sources of
bacterial DNA. "And we don't know
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