
The mayor of Salmon Arm doesn’t think the E.coli outbreak at three Shuswap Lake beaches will spread.
Speaking on the Jason Hewlett Show, Alan Harrison says the issues appear to be isolated at Sandy Point, Pierre’s Point and the Glen Echo campgrounds.
“It’s on the North West side of the Salmon Arm arm and so it’s the shallowest and kind of most isolated part of the lake,” he said. “As you know Shuswap Lake is huge and our public beaches are quite far away from there. Sunnybrae is also open and of course the arms of the lake, there is no concern at all.”
He says there have been people inquiring about the status of the various beaches, and city officials are working to get the message out that things are fine in their area.
“I think when people do see it, they think automatically wow, this is all over the Shuswap and we’ve had some calls about it,” added Harrison. “We of course, have been in contact with Interior Health and we’ve had our beaches checked and what we’ve discovered is that our own areas are clear of E.coli at this time.”
Harrison says the last E.coli scare at a public beach in Salmon Arm was in 2012 when one beach was closed for five days.
The closures were announced by the Adams Lake Indian Band and the First Nations Health Authority say high E.coli levels with the sources of past E.coli-related closures in those areas linked to ducks, geese and humans.