[thistleclub]

Fecal counts still high at Chedoke waterfalls, study finds
(Hamilton Mountain News, Richard Leitner, Dec 11 2014)

Some numbers aren’t as far off the charts as two years ago, but a follow-up study at five escarpment waterfalls along Chedoke Creek is once again flagging “unacceptable” levels of fecal contamination.

Mountview Falls is still by far the worst, with E. coli levels averaging 200 times the provincial limit for safe recreational use, bi-weekly testing by Redeemer University College chemistry students found.

Total coliform, or bacteria, were 29 times the provincial limit at the falls, which discharges into a gully that runs beneath the main pedestrian bridge on the Chedoke Radial Trail and is a popular spot for hikers to splash about on a warm day.

While both results were substantially lower than in 2012, levels of phosphate, nitrate and biological oxygen demand, all indicators of sewage, were similar or higher.

Testing at waterfalls to the east – by the escarpment stairs at Cliffview Park and the eastern edge of Chedoke golf course – largely mirrored 2012 results, with fecal contamination at about half of Mountview’s.

Two falls to the west, in Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area and near the top of the radial trail, were comparatively pristine, although still well above the E. coli recreational limit.

“If it was a beach, they’d have a sign saying we suggest you don’t swim here,” Redeemer student Jacob Borgdorff said when asked if 2012’s advice to stay out of the water still holds. “Because it’s a creek they don’t put up signs all along the creek.”


Read it in full here.