Our Swim Guide program allows us to monitor popular swimming and recreation access points throughout the watershed to E.coli bacteria. Though North Carolina does not have an E.coli standard for water quality and instead uses fecal bacteria standards, the EPA has set a beach action value of no more than 200 MPN for E.coli in recreational waters in order to protect human health.
We monitor locations throughout the Haw River watershed and Jordan Lake. Download the Swim Guide app directly to your smart phone to see all the recreation accesses and detailed descriptions. We publish the results each Friday in our E-newsletter or look for it on our website, or Facebook and Instagram pages. You can also subscribe to text updates by texting HAW to (844) 956-1139.
Here’s results from the Sept. 3-4, 2022 weekend.
Green icons indicate safe E-coli levels and red icons unsafe, based on EPA recommendations for beaches.
Swim Guide 2022 Starts Memorial Day weekend, ends after Labor Day.
This is our last weekend of our Summer 2022 Swim Guide program and we’d love to hear from you!
What was best about it and what could we do better? What sites would you like to see added next year? As we look towards the summer of 2023, your feedback will be incredibly helpful as we search for new opportunities and partnerships to fund this valuable program.
How did our swim sites do this summer?
Chicken Bridge failed to meet the bacteria standard 6 out of 14 weeks this summer, while other sites along the Haw had no more than 2 exceedances. All of our Jordan Lake sites passed every week.
We were able to expand our sampling capacity to include Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring following a spike at Farrington Beach access. We will also continue to investigate potential sources of bacteria exceedances at Chicken Bridge.
Check out our Swim Access sites!
Glencoe
Saxapahaw
Chicken Bridge
Lower Haw- Bynum
(We’ve just added Swepsonville River Park and the Hwy 64 Bridge crossing on the Lower Haw River State Natural Area. We are now monitoring waters near 5 Jordan Lake beaches by boat.)
Why E-coli Testing?
Bacteria contamination in water is a threat to our health. Since 1986, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has urged states to adopt E. coli bacteria (Escherichia coli) standards to preserve recreational water quality and better protect public health. North Carolina is one of only a handful of states that has failed to do so. It’s past time for the state to adopt the E. coli standard for bacteria in freshwaters. Read the Waterkeepers Carolina report “Is It Safe To Swim?”
If you have suggestions for new locations that you’d like to see us monitor for the swim season in 2022, please let us know!
Check out our Swim Guide program and find a map of our beaches here!
Interested in supporting our 2022 Swim Guide program?
Donate to help:
- Support mileage and stipend for qualified interns
- Help offset costs of disposable sample equipment (sterile bottles, ice, gloves)
- Printing costs for flyers at beaches
Don’t Forget to Download the Official Swim Guide App!
Take Swim Guide with you – wherever you go! The Swim Guide app is free. Experience the freedom of beach-hunting from your Apple or Android smartphone.
Haw River Assembly staff and interns monitor water quality at sites in this region for E.Coli bacteria. Here’s why that matters.
The Importance of Swim Guide
Every person should be able to swim at any beach on any day of the summer and never worry about health risks. Without current, reliable data about water quality, people are vulnerable to illness and infection. When water isn’t safe to touch, people withdraw from it. And when the connection between us and our water fades, so does our instinct to protect it.
- Swim Guide has helped to prevent thousands of waterborne illnesses simply by making it easy for people to know when their water is contaminated and when it is clean for swimming.
- Swim Guide is helping to identify sources of water pollution so that together we can act to restore and maintain swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters.
Water at all sites is sampled for E. coli at all sites. Basic water chemistry (pH, DO, temp, conductivity) is also monitored at all sites. Haw River Assembly utilizes the standardized federal criteria of 235 E.coli/100 ml for collecting and analyzing water samples. Test results are expressed as Most Probable Number (MPN) of E.coli cfu (colony forming units) per 100 ml. Water samples are collected weekly. Results are posted one day after collection.
Results will be communicated through the swim guide app and results tables will be put on Haw River Assembly’s website and social media site. They are also available by email or by calling Haw River Assembly at 919-542-5790 or emily@hawriver.org.
Finding the Best Beaches
Swim Guide offers water quality information for a wide variety of beaches, ranging from city parks to remote lakes ideal for camping.
To find the beach that’s just right for you, browse the map or search for a beach by name. Beach descriptions tell you about amenities, lifeguards, where to park, and everything else you need to know to enjoy a day at the beach.
Have a favorite beach? Bookmark it! The next time you use the app, it will show up at the top of the beach list, making it easier for you to access information.
Don’t know how to get to the beach of your choice? The app also provides walking, driving, and transit directions.
Make sure to share your love of beaches with friends and family using our built-in social media sharing tools.
Beach water quality information that is easy to understand
Every beach is marked with an icon so you know when the water at your favorite beach meets government water quality standards. A beach is marked Green when single sample results are under 235 E.coli / 100 ML water. A beach is marked Red when the results are equal to or above 235 E.coli / 100 ML water. A beach is marked Grey when there are no current results or there is no available information.
Reliable beach water quality sources
Water quality information is gathered from government agencies or reported by Swim Guide affiliates themselves.
In any beach, look at the “Source” section. This will tell you who samples the water at each beach, how often, and what water quality standards apply. The date and time stamps tell you when the sample results were last verified by the Swim Guide affiliate.
Pollution Reporting
Bacteria isn’t the only pollution that can ruin your trip to the beach. If you are concerned about water quality, litter, minor spills, or other problems, let us know using the pollution reporting tool in Swim Guide. This will alert your local affiliate to environmental problems. (In an emergency, always notify the appropriate authority).
The History of Swim Guide
Swim Guide was created by the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper staff in Toronto to answer this simple question: is it safe to swim in Lake Ontario?
We thought it would be easy to find the answer. We were wrong.
As it turns out, reliable facts and figures about beach water quality are hard to come by. So we started compiling our own.
Over the years, more affiliates have started using Swim Guide to share information about swimmable waters with the public. As of 2019, Swim Guide is the most popular beach information service in the world.
