Human waste behind E. coli problem in Lower Sackville’s first lake, reports finds

Human waste is responsible for high levels of E. coli bacteria at First Lake in Lower Sackville, NS, according to a report commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Halifax.

A popular lake beach was removed from the council’s beach surveillance program in 2020 due to high bacteria levels, so there are no lifeguards monitoring the swimming area and the water is not regularly tested by the council.

“There’s a connection somewhere, a broken pipe, something that’s putting human waste into the lake,” Paul Russell, the city councilor for the area, told CBC News.

“Now that we know that’s the problem, we can move on to very specifically identify where it is and fix it very specifically.”

Halifax Water will locate the source of the human waste and find a solution to fix it.

On Friday, a warm and sunny day after weeks of rain, people swam in the lake, seemingly oblivious to the high bacteria.

“I had never seen any signs that the beach or the water was closed. As you can see, everyone is swimming in the water,” said Karen Bishop, who was there with her daughter.

Bishop said another multi-goer warned her about the water.

“An elderly woman came up to me and said, ‘Don’t go in the water,’ and that’s when I started to worry about my heavily pregnant daughter.”

There are signs, but they send mixed signals. One on a path near the beach says “no swimming” but another on the beach says “swim at your own risk”.

“We probably need more signage… I started the discussions with people a few weeks ago to say, ‘this is helpful but not effective,'” Russell said.