They tested it. Again.
Weekly sea sampling—restarted just to check if the water was safe—just found “unacceptable” bacteria levels in a few spots.
The messy reality
Infrastructure and Environment pulled samples on May 18 and 17. Specifically at Plemont, Grouvville, Havre des Pas, and Victoria Pool. The numbers were bad. High levels of pollutants.
Why? Rain. Heavy stuff. It poured on the 17th and 18th. Rain washes everything off the land. Straight into the sea. Runoff makes a mess of things, apparently.
Don’t go swimming yet
Here is the advice from staff. If you live here. You should stay out. Avoid entering the sea for 48 hours after a big rain event. At least.
They are resampling on Tuesday and Wednesday to see if things clear up. They probably won’t, not immediately. Nature is slow. Pollution isn’t.
The government plans to keep this up until September 21. Sixteen bays total. An interactive map updates automatically with the results, which means you can watch the water quality shift in real-time.
Is it worth the swim right now?
The public health advice remains: stay out for at least two days after heavy rain.
It’s a reminder. We aren’t as separate from the land as we like to think. The rain hits the pavement. Then it hits the sand.
Maybe check the map first. Or don’t. It’s your health.
