“We all bring our kids here, so you know people might not want to let their kids swim in that area,” Dan Thorell, environmental health director, Grand Traverse County said.
The Grand Traverse County Health Department is warning people to not swim at two beaches after discovering troubling levels of E.coli.
Every Wednesday, 11 Grand Traverse County beaches are tested.
Thursday results showed Acme Bayside Park and Sunset Park had high levels of E.coli bacteria.
They retested the beaches and got worse results for Acme Bayside Park.
The water may look harmless but the test results show the water at these two beaches has E.coli swirling in it.
“Eleven Grand Traverse Bay beaches were sampled on Wednesday, two of them came back as level two, above 300 for E.coli counts, so we issued that advisory,” Thorell said.
They re-tested the water and Sunset Park remained at level two, but Acme Bayside Park got bumped up to a level three.
The county believes they know why.
“Acme Bayside Park beach, 50 geese were out there, there was geese droppings everywhere so there is a problem with the geese hanging out there, same thing as sunset not quite as many but it’s a smaller beach,” Thorell said.
That’s why signs like these are posted, but some people didn’t see them.
“I just thought it was some kind of little message box or something I can’t really see it from here, it’s so teeny I think a bigger sign with a warning on it would be a good thing so people especially people bringing their little kids to the beach can choose a different beach if they want,” Savannah Bedwell said.
But regardless they’ll make sure to still have fun, without the water
“It’s a beautiful day we need to be outside, I’m with my daughter, we’re just having a good time. We’re not going to allow anything impact that,” Gary Gilmore said.
The water was tested again Friday and results will be available Saturday.
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