Testing the county beach waters

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By Mark H. Stowers

Summer in Michigan means getting to the lake for fun in the sun – fishing, swimming, relaxing and soaking up the short summer season rays of sunshine on your favorite beach. Across the Mitten State, Oakland County holds the title for most beaches of the 83 counties with around 400 navigable lakes. But lurking in and around Michigan beaches and waterways each summer is the danger of E. coli bacteria which can cause stomach cramps, nausea and fever, as well as skin and respiratory issues.

Each of the state’s 83 county health departments is tasked with sampling and testing Michigan waters to keep beach users safe. In Oakland County, Mark Hansell is the chief of environmental health special programs. The Indiana native has been with the county since 1995 when he started as a sanitarian inspecting Oakland County restaurants. Now in charge of special programs, he directs the Oakland County water program monitoring non-community water supplies and also beach monitoring to keep residents informed and safe. With a team of senior staff and supervisors, along with an intern program, Hansell and his staff tackle all of the county’s beach monitoring. Last year more than 4,000 water samples were taken and analyzed.

“Most years, we're able to take on six student interns. And these are at least college-age students that are enrolled in environmental health science or closely related programs and are interested in public health and what we do here at the health division. They perform the field work and the actual sampling for our beach monitoring program,” Hansell explained.

The county monitors beaches for ten weeks beginning in early June.

“We have known beaches with around 250 known swim areas in Oakland County that we believe are active. And it's a mix of what we would call public beaches. And then we have about 49 public beaches that we consider truly public,” Hansell said. “Those would include things like city, village or township parks. You can have county parks and state parks. And then camps, day camps, and things like that that might have beaches offered to campers that we try to sample every year. Those 49 or 50 are sampled every year because those are truly public beaches and we want to make sure that those get our attention. They're pretty popular sites and then we get another 50 or 51 we try to round out around 100. That’s about our capacity per year that we can sample.”

Those extra beaches fall into the “semi-public” category such as subdivisions where beach associations or homeowners’ associations are responsible.

“That leaves us with about 200 that are semi-public in our inventory. If we do the public beaches every year, then we have to rotate in the semi-publics. And about once every four years is how that rotation is going to work for the semi-public beaches,” Hansell said.

Hansell and his crew do get calls to test beaches that get water quality complaints. Sometimes those beaches will have a sampling of their own that is turned into the health department. The beach monitoring staff will perform a site visit and take additional sampling to verify.

Beach monitoring begins June 2 this season, aligning with the availability of interns for the season. The season runs for a minimum of 10 weeks, with another week added on to sample beaches that may still be having issues with water quality.

“If we stop sampling in early August, any beach that is still having elevated water quality issues will continue to be sampled until we get those resolved,” Hansell said.

The actual water quality test consists of wading into waist-deep water in a designated swim area and then collecting the samples.

“They are scooping a minimum of two to three feet under the water to collect that sample, kind of about the middle of the water column there. And they are collecting a sample at three points in that swimming area. So, each swim area is sampled three times. What we call left, right and center are our sampling areas,” Hansell explained.

Those samples are packed in a cooler maintained with ice packs. The staff and interns have a number of assigned beaches daily and those samples are brought back to an Oakland County lab for analysis with two different tests – one a “rapid” test with results in a few hours and one longer test that takes up to 24 hours.

A quick overview from Hansell explained the process simply.

“The laboratory cranks out a result and we do a little bit of mathematical calculation to get a single number that we compare against Michigan's water quality standards to determine if it's safe to swim or not,” Hansell said. “Specifically, we are looking for E. coli, which is a very normal bacteria that every warm-blooded animal has in their digestive system. That includes humans and all the little furry animals out there in the wild including waterfowl and birds.”

E. coli is an indicator that there could be some type of fecal contamination in the water. There are hundreds of strains of E. coli but most of them are not going to be harmful.

“There are some dangerous strains of E. coli that can cause some pretty serious illness. When you are seeing elevated E. coli in a body of water, it's an indicator of fecal contamination and we don't want exposure to possible fecal contamination. But it could also be an indicator that there are other, more hazardous contaminants within the water that we want to prevent exposure to. That could be other bacteria, it could be viruses, it could be parasites. It's kind of just a general indicator of water quality,” Hansell explained.

Once back in the lab, different tests are run. The standard method (Colilert-18 test) that literally is the counting the number of E. coli colonies. This test has been run for decades and includes an incubation period of 18-24 hours. There is also the rapid method – qCPR (Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction), a molecular method used for detecting and quantifying microorganisms in water samples that was put in use in 2015. It's a faster and more reliable alternative to traditional culture methods, allowing for same-day or even real-time water quality monitoring. The rapid method qPCR can identify specific microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses and protozoa and is used in various applications like wastewater treatment, recreational water quality monitoring and drinking water safety. The newer technology, qPCR, allows the health division to provide same-day results. But it is currently being used only as a pilot project.

The health division will issue an advisory if it believes the results indicate the following day's results will be greater than 300 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters. Then the health division will continue to work with EGLE and the EPA to ensure qPCR is a true reflection of water quality. The advisory will recommend avoiding swimming at the beach and be posted on the county website (https://tinyurl.com/rxd4badc), as well as on EGLE's BeachGuard website (https://tinyurl.com/4vkmw9fu).

“What we’re doing with the qPCR test is looking at the DNA of E. coli and making copies of the DNA. And that method can take four to six hours. It gives us same day results, which is way better than telling somebody it was unsafe to swim yesterday. It’s a very promising technology and we're going on our third year actually using that technology to provide same-day results for beaches. Unfortunately, we're limited to the number that we can do that way but we do at least 12 every year of our most populous public beaches.

The Oakland County Health Department is the lead in monitoring beaches and receives assistance from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). According to Jeff Johnston, EGLE Public Information Officer, “Our role is to provide and maintain an online database (Beachguard) for water quality test results and status of beaches posted open or closed; apply for federal funds to distribute to local health departments to test beaches on the Great Lakes; distribute state funds to local health departments to test beaches on inland lakes and use qPCR methods for rapid testing and source tracking at both types of beaches; adopt water quality criteria for total body contact (this was completed years ago and is used to compare E. coli results); and provide technical support when problems arise.”

Oakland County has performed beach monitoring since the early 1970s and using E. coli as the indicator began in the 1990s.

“People want to know if they're headed out to the county park knowing and trusting they're swimming in water that's been tested and it's been shown to be safe,” Hansell said. “We’re either loved or hated. There is no middle ground. ‘You shut down my favorite swimming spot.’ We hate to do that. And God forbid it happens on a big holiday weekend.”

The lab results are put into a geometric mean mathematical calculation that is different from an average.

“The calculation normalizes those three samples into a single result. So, it will control for the highs and the lows and give you a standard result for that beach. The Michigan water quality standards are 300 E. coli per 100 milliliters of water for full body contact. Anything at that 300 or above would be posted as closed for swimming and literally posted.”

There's a second part, if the geometric mean of five samples or more over a 30-day period is over 130 CFUs per 100 milliliters, then that beach is also closed until that average gets down below 130. But due to state water quality standards, only Colilert results may be used to issue a beach closure. With the quicker results from qPCR, the health division will issue an advisory recommending beachgoers avoid swimming. The following day, the advisory will either be lifted or the beach will be closed, depending on the Colilert results.

Once a beach test is positive, the first step is to communicate that to the beach contact at the city or township where that beach is located. Oakland County then sends somebody out to post that beach with a sign that would indicate no swimming. The beach is closed due to water quality standards and resampled.

“We will continue to resample that beach until the result shows that it is safe for swimming. We resample it daily until it's reopened,” Hansell said.

Hansell noted an advisory is similar to a closure “in which we have evidence that swimming in that water might expose you to some bacterial contamination that could lead to negative health consequences. A closure means we have laboratory confirmed results that suggest there is absolutely bacteria in that water at a level that is above the state recreational water standard.”

Common ways contamination gets in a lake, Hansell said, include a heavy rain event.

“With lakes being naturally lower than the landscape, all of that runoff goes into the lake and we look for E. coli,” Hansell said. “When we see chronic closures, we’re going to look for something more serious like a sewer line break or septic event. Mostly, it’s due to a heavy rain event. But we are striving to increase our protection with the advisories when using qPCR.”

Residents may well want to sample a lake on their own, and can contact the Oakland County Health Department at (248) 858-1312 for additional information.

Shannon Griggs, a toxicologist with EGLE, noted that, “There are no kits for beach testing. Please contact a local lab and ask what type of bottles they will use for water sampling and what schedule will work. Samples need to be transported in a cooler with ice and delivered to a nearby lab within six hours of sample collection. It is important that a lab is ready and expecting a sample delivery. Otherwise, the lab may not be able to analyze the samples.”

Hansell added, “If you are conducting some sampling of your own, you will need to know the E-coli limits and the sampling schedule. It is important to understand that random, individual samples are not reliable indicators of water quality... Also, if you want to get an accurate idea of your beach's overall water quality, you must sample on more than one occasion.”

The law requires a minimum of five sampling events (consisting of at least three samples per event) within a 30-day period to be considered a valid and reliable study of the water quality. After 30 days you need to calculate a seasonal geometric average for all of the individual samples within that time frame. This seasonal geometric average must be below 130 E. coli to be considered safe for swimming.

The Beachguard website has up-to-date information and includes lakes from the entire state of Michigan. You can sign up for alerts and if you have a favorite beach, you can subscribe to it and the site will send notifications if there's a closure or an advisory or the beach is reopened. The 2025 sampling list for Oakland County is also available on the county site.

“We're very, very focused on the swim area. It's very important to note that the results of the testing at a swimming area are not indicative of the water quality of the entire lake,” Hansell explained.

The budget and cost to keep Oakland County beaches monitored comes from both state and county dollars. Griggs, with EGLE, writes the grants and then doles out the monies to health departments across the state that apply for the funds.

Funding is always an issue,” Griggs said. “The amount of state funds has been almost the same for a long time, for about 20 years – about $200,000...But there's about 200 inland lake beaches across Michigan that are the higher priority beaches for testing. We’re basically giving $1,000 per beach.”

The Federal monies available are only for Great Lakes coastal beaches.

“We received just over $200,000 a year to monitor Great Lakes beaches, which is not enough. It's like breaking a cookie into a bunch of parts so everybody gets something. They all get something. The local health departments send in applications saying, ‘we plan on monitoring all these beaches.’ They usually ask double than what we have. Sadly, I tell them we can partially fund your requests. I try to do to make sure everybody that asks for funding, they get something, but not everybody gets everything that they ask for.”

According to Hansell from the Oakland County Health Department, budget amendments and grants are cobbled together to pay for all of the county beach monitoring.

“We had an amendment in July of 2023 of $20,000 to put toward our 2024 efforts. And then in June, we got the remainder of that funding for 2024 of $40,420. For 2024, you could look at it as $64,420 but that money also goes through the end of December of 2025. So, we consider 2025 to be partially funded. The grants are the Technology for Advancement of Water Monitoring Funds and Renew Michigan Funds and that is for the rapid testing methods grant. There are no federal funds in this grant.”

Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner, is in the chain of beach monitoring and keeps a focus on the overall problems affecting Michigan water bodies.

“We hear complaints from folks and we generally end up sending them to the health department. But the biggest impacts on bodies of water are from things like fertilizers. Phosphorus and nitrogen are two of the biggest contributors because there's always bacteria in water. Any kind of water out in the world is going to have bacteria in it. It's what's in the water with it that makes it, whether it's going to grow too much or not. If there's a lot of fertilizers that get in the water, then that's going to cause algae blooms and bacterial things that shut down beaches. So, we have a guide for folks who live on water, any kind of water, lakes, rivers, streams. If they can put green infrastructure along the shoreline so when rain comes, it doesn't just take the fertilizer from their lawns but it also takes the fertilizer from the river to the water. That's going to be a huge impact on algae blooms. We have a big education program around that.”

In addition to water quality, the beach area itself or the “swash zone” where waves roll and crash in on the sandy beach areas can be a factor. E. coli can be found in that area and essentially be stirred up during harsh waves and bad weather.

Wayne State University professor Donna Kashian has conducted swash zone research but not in Oakland County.

“We monitor at Bell Isle on every occasion and Lake St. Clair Metro Park and we have a couple of papers out. We're more interested in doing it a different way,” Kashian said. “The state just goes out and does water. The children play in the sand, so we're also measuring E. coli levels in the sand. In some areas you get algae or that muck that washes up on shore. Those piles of muck, its debris, algae, and with that we're looking to see if it allows the E. coli to like kind of fester and build up under those piles of algae. It was actually worse. Even after beach grooming, there were elevated levels of E. coli than there was in the water.”

Hansell noted that Oakland County “doesn’t have any involvement in swash zone data or data collection. We see that swash zone as more of a coastal beach issue and we just we just don't get that kind of erosion or deposition of sediment or what it is you're looking for on these smaller inland lakes where we pretty much have no wake zones and things like that in our swim areas so the swash zones really don't come into play here.”

David Szlag, an Oakland University environmental science professor, pointed out that grooming beaches may be helpful in swash zones.

“This is a hypothesis that it will be better to do a light surface rake of the beach as opposed to digging up the beach and smoothing it and potentially burying any of the rack, that's the dead vegetation,” he explained. “If there's feces and other material on the beach, you don't want to bury those. You want to just get the surface and try and scoop as much up as opposed to burying it so that it then doesn't become part of the swash zone.”

Szlag is studying the hypothesis and working it into beach management practices at Lake St. Clair, Metro Park and the beaches at Stony Creek.

In addition to teaching at Oakland University, Szlag has manned a field station at Lake St. Clair involving E. coli research for Macomb and St. Clair Counties.

“We run the culture-based method that everybody runs, Colilert-18 test, on five Macomb beaches, Stony Creek, Lake St. Clair Metro Park and then one up in New Baltimore and one down in St. Clair Shores. And then we also run a rapid qPCR test for E. coli for the health departments, St. Clair County and Macomb County. Then we help the health departments and consulting companies in the states,” Szlag explained. “We do what's called microbial source tracking. When you get a high E. coli number, you don't know if it's from gulls, geese, dogs, cows or deer. But most importantly, is it from people?”

He and his students also work with a high-tech procedure – DVPCR – a droplet digital PCR technology that is faster and more sensitive and less prone to inhibition. His lab assists Oakland County on occasion.

“Oakland County has their own lab but if they get a sample and they want to know if it's human, gull or goose, then they send that to us. But Oakland County Health Department tests up to 76 beaches weekly. And they run those in-house and then everything gets uploaded into Beach Guard.”

2025 beach testing list

Macomb County starts testing in late April and continues through the end of September. According to Szlag, Macomb County starts early in order to have the geometric mean identified and finalized before Memorial Day.

“You can have a chronic beach problem or you can have an acute beach problem, or you can have both. Memorial Beach (St. Clair County) is one of those ones where it has both an acute problem, it oftentimes is over 300, and then its 30-day geomean is 130 oftentimes,” Szlag said. “If there are sources of human sewage, a lot of times we're looking for failing septic systems, illicit connections, and so we work with consulting companies on tracking down any failing septic systems or illicit connections where somebody has intentionally or unintentionally connected their sanitary sewer to a storm sewer. Storm sewers go directly to the lakes and streams and depending on the size of the municipality, they may give some primary treatment. Larger municipalities will treat their stormwater. But by and large, stormwater is diverted into ditches and receiving waters.”

Szlag’s swash research includes finding the source of harmful bacteria when weather patterns differ.

“We want to know ‘what is the source of those E. coli? Are they actually propagating? Are they just hanging out there?’ In other words, are they from a fresh source or an old source? There have been years where there's no rain, usually you see high E. coli levels when you get a half inch of rain or more. We'd have these blue sunny skies but the lake is really choppy, and we'd get high E. coli levels, no rain and we got to wondering ‘is the swash zone contributing those high E. coli levels into the bathing beach area?’”

Nicole Wagner, assistant professor at Oakland University, teaches lake ecology (limnology) and intro biology and has focused on algae and E. coli in her research.

“Humans are not the only ones that have E. coli in our digestive tract. If there's a ton of geese, there could be E. coli. When algal scums are observed, I know that E. coli is potentially tested for,” she said.

Eric Diesing, freshwater program coordinator for Oakland County Parks, noted his office “does some monitoring in-house for investigation purposes for water quality but it's not so much directly tied to the larger beach monitoring program throughout the county.”

His department works on a special case basis as the park system doesn’t have as many beaches.

“We don't operate a lot of beaches, so our freshwater program here isn't focused on that. We do have a beach on Stewart Lake up at Groveland Oaks but we're starting to move away from the beach kind of aspect, if you will , and that's simply just because we can offer some other unique opportunities to residents. We still want them to be able to access the water providing other recreational opportunities like boating access, fishing access and other opportunity. We'll partner with the health department and collect samples and drop them off. If we're doing investigative work, it's a different scenario and it’s something that we're interested in as far as water quality. E. coli will be a piece of that but there's also many other parameters that go into that.”

He noted most of the park’s work is annual monitoring as well as reacting to calls and reports.

“We are also implementing our own monitoring program that gives us a lot of data on how the water changes seasonally and as water temperatures are rising and falling,” Deising said. ­ ­­­­