The Press Stories
Citizens got an unpleasant surprise in the middle of a heat wave on Saturday when they found their favorite beach closed.
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Heavy rains during the week have affected the quality of the province’s water bodies.
“The problem when you have rivers overflowing, lake overflows, is that you bring a lot of runoff from the shoreline, which means you have a lot of suspended solids, some chemicals (…), or even animals. Excretion, ” explains Mark Hamilton, microbiologist and head of Eurofins Environex.
Beauport Beach was one of the waters closed Saturday.
“After a tidal cycle, swimming may be allowed again after approximately 12 hours, so that the water level has been changed,” the municipality said.
Although the citizens were disappointed that they could not swim, they understood the municipality’s decision.
“The city says it’s not swimmable, so it’s not swimmable,” concludes a person interviewed by TVA Nouvelles.
“I wouldn’t let my kids swim there,” said one woman.
Exposure to contaminated water can have many health consequences.
“It can cause health problems, especially gastrointestinal problems such as heartburn, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, sometimes fever,” explains Caroline Hood, supervisor of the Eurofins EnvironX microbiology laboratory, in an interview with TVA News.
