Tom Ridge Environmental Education Center

College interns installed a data-gathering buoy in Lake Erie, off Presque Isle State Park’s Beach 2, this week as part of an ongoing effort to safeguard visitors who come to the park to enjoy the beaches and water.

The buoy, funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund that is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, is equipped with monitoring devices that will provide real time information about water quality conditions to families who might be planning a trip to Presque Isle State Park and scientists engaged in environmental research. The monitoring equipment will measure the turbidity, or cloudiness, of the water, pH levels, temperature and oxygen content.

The water quality data will be sent to the weather station at the top of the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. Water quality and weather data will be available 24 hours a day as a snapshot of current conditions on the Regional Science Consortium website.

“This is another project that has come out of the cooperative effort between state and local agencies to help us better understand Lake Erie, what influences conditions in the lake, and discover causes of natural phenomena,” said DEP’s Office of the Great Lakes Chief Lori Boughton said. “For the first time, we will have access to local water quality data in real time that’s accessible to everyone, everywhere through the Web. The new information source will serve as a practical, day-to-day application and research tool.”

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Regional Science Consortium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center are partners in the $16,242 project and participated in today’s buoy deployment at Presque Isle State Park Beach 2.

Presque Isle State Park staff will use water quality and weather-related data to help determine if a pre-emptive swimming advisory should be issued. Previous studies have indicated that certain water and weather conditions can impact bacterial levels in the waters along the park’s beaches, especially Escherichia coli bacteria, or E.coli.

“Information generated by monitoring systems on the buoy will help us better predict when a swimming advisory would be appropriate,” said Presque Isle State Park Manager Harry Leslie. “For example, documenting the water temperature and the direction of the wind on an ongoing basis will give the state park staff some hard data before making a swimming advisory decision. In addition, prospective park visitors who are thinking about going to the beach will be able to see the lake conditions online before venturing out.”

E. coli is a naturally occurring bacterium that comes from the digestive tract of warm-blooded animals, including humans, domestic animals and wildlife. It is found throughout the ecosystem.

The most common health risks associated with the bacteria in recreational water are respiratory and intestinal illness, headache and infections of the ear, nose and throat.

Regional Science Consortium Executive Director Jerry Covert says the Presque Isle studies are contributing significantly to the national body of research regarding beaches and bacteria, especially with regards to how weather impacts the dispersal of bacteria.

“The buoy’s data gathering equipment will help create a model that could be utilized at other locations where E. coli levels are having an effect on beach water quality,” said Covert.

“The research information that will be available from this new monitoring system will greatly facilitate the current and future research undertaken by local and visiting Regional Science Consortium scientists.”

When an advisory is posted, signs and lifeguards at individual beaches alert park visitors to the elevated bacteria levels. There are times when swimmers are not permitted in the water, but that occurs only when bacteria counts reach levels where the health of the general population could be at risk.

In 2006, state and local government agencies and research programs began an intense examination of the Lake Erie watershed in response to a spike in swimming restrictions at Presque Isle State Park due to elevated E.coli levels. In 2007, the investigation resulted in Presque Isle State Park bringing its beach advisory protocol into line with what is being practiced in other Great Lakes locations while continuing to be protective of human health.

During the past summer, swimmers at Presque Isle State Park were kept out of the water at impacted beaches on two days—down from 17 days the year before—without any reports of beach-related illness.

NewsClip: New Buoy to Monitor Presque Isle Water Quality, Weather

5/23/2008