SEATTLE — King County has begun monitoring water quality at lake beaches across the area, working to protect public health by checking bacteria levels and closing beaches when necessary.
The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks takes samples, the King County Environmental Lab tests them, and Public Health - Seattle and King County monitors data to make sure beaches are only open when safe for swimming.
This year, the county says it's altering its formula for assessing safety, more heavily weighing recent collection data.
Previous data will still be included, but not weighed as heavily.
The new method is more in line with current Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Ecology standards, and that they're based on the real-time water quality data it gets each week, according to Public Health - Seattle and King County. When water quality gets worse at a beach, it will close more quickly, and when water quality improves, the beach will open faster.
"What's good about this new protocol is that we'll be responding more quickly to higher levels of bacteria in the beach water and we'll be closing the beach when we should and reopening the beach when we should," Beach Safety and Sewage Monitoring Lead Jun Naotsuka with Public Health - Seattle and King County said. "Our decisions are more timely because our calculations react to the changing environment more quickly."
There are several ways to keep beaches safe from harmful bacteria. According to Public Health - Seattle and King County, people should not feed wildlife near the beach because it makes them defecate more. They also recommend showering before swimming, making sure babies and toddlers wear good quality swim diapers, and reporting any water quality concerns to the local parks department.
You can see which beaches are open and learn more about the program here.