Kewaunee County beaches test safe for E. coli levels By Kevin Boneske For The News-Chronicle Although people may not want to go swimming there until the water warms up, the monitoring underway at two of Kewaunee County's beaches along Lake Michigan indicates they are both safe for levels of E. coli bacteria. Results back from the initial water samples taken the week before Memorial Day at Algoma's Crescent Beach and the city of Kewaunee beach indicate both are well below E. coli levels which would warrant issuing an advisory or closing a beach. Both beaches recorded only small traces of E. coli in a 100-milliliter water sample. The county's beach closing policy calls for issuing an advisory, to urge people not to use a beach because of poor water quality, when 235 to 1,000 colony forming units (cfu) of E. coli are present in a 100-mL sample. A beach would be posted closed in instances where the sample contains more than 1,000 cfu of E. coli. While the water temperature in Lake Michigan is presently around 50 degrees and too cold to go swimming, Kewaunee County Public Health Director Mary Halada said Algoma's Crescent Beach is slated for testing twice a week and the city of Kewaunee beach once a week between now and Labor Day. The county has entered into a contract to have the beaches tested this summer through a program being run by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In addition to having signs posted at the two county beaches, in the event they are ever closed or an advisory is issued this summer, Halada said testing data about the beaches is being posted on the Internet. Updated monitoring data for beaches in Kewaunee and several other Wisconsin counties is available by accessing infotrek.er.usgs.gov. The state Department of Natural Resources has indicated that a beach will be posted as having poor water quality, and people advised against swimming there, because of "an increased risk of illness" for bathers who come in contact with the water. A "closed to swimming" sign will be posted, according to the DNR, when there is a "serious health hazard" to people. The sign may also be posted after a "known pollution event" or heavy rainstorm, which are associated with decreased beach water quality.