Swim Guide and Recreational Water Quality Testing

Ottawa Riverkeeper collects data on recreational water quality from official sources and our own testing program and makes the results available to all through Swim Guide.

Swim Guide is both a website and a free smartphone app that helps you find your closest beaches, check water quality and report pollution. The app uses real-time E. coli data to flag beaches that are safe or unsafe for swimming, or have no data. While Swim Guide does not consider toxic pollution or other potential environmental concerns, users can report any pollution concerns such as water quality, litter, minor spills, or other problems.

Swim Guide provides:

  • Tools to locate the nearest spot to cool off on a hot day
  • Unique site descriptions and photographs
  • Information about the condition and E. coli levels of local beaches
  • Integration with Google maps for detailed walking, driving, or biking directions
  • Simple tools for reporting pollution and environmental concerns

About Swim Guide:

Swim Guide was developed by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in Toronto, and has since spread to include beaches in the United States. In the Spring of 2011, Ottawa Riverkeeper launched Swim Guide for the Ottawa River, and the app now includes freshwater beaches throughout the Ottawa River watershed in Ontario and Quebec. Swim Guide is also available in French.

How do we test recreational water quality?

Depending on where you are in the Ottawa River watershed, the frequency of recreational water quality sampling can differ greatly. This means that beachgoers may not have access to important water quality information to make informed risk assessments about swimming. To help mitigate this lack of coverage, Ottawa Riverkeeper staff and trained volunteers conduct water quality sampling during the summer months at less frequently monitored beaches, and at popular unmonitored sites.

We then make all of this information public via Swim Guide as either a pass or fail for the beach. Additionally, more detailed data is available for researchers on our Open Data Portal.  

When collecting water samples, Ottawa Riverkeeper follows the protocols set by the respective provinces. For beaches located in Ontario we collect five 100 mL-samples at evenly spaced distances within the swim area at the beach. For beaches located in Quebec, we collect samples following the “W” method, whereby the five 100 mL-samples are collected in a W formation in the swim area along the beach. 

Once collected, the samples are processed and analysed at Ottawa Riverkeeper’s in-house Community Science Lab using IDEXX’s Colilert Test and Quanti Tray/2000 System. We can analyse the results after the samples have been incubated for 18 to 24 hours, depending on the testing method.. Following the incubation period, we post the results on Swim Guide where the public can access them through the website and mobile app.

We follow Health Canada Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality, which means that we mark a beach on Swim Guide as Green (i.e., passes) when the geometric mean of at least 5 samples is below 200 E.coli/100 mL water and each individual sample concentration is below 400 E.coli/100mL. We mark a beach as Red (i.e., fails) when the results are equal to or above a geometric mean of 200 E.coli/100mL water and/or a single sample was at or above 400 E.coli/100mL. Finally, we mark a beach as Grey when there are no recent results, or there is no information available for the site.

Swim Guide users can visit the Ottawa Riverkeeper Monitoring Sites region to access all of the results from our monitoring. Given that Ottawa Riverkeeper does not have authority over the management of beaches, our testing data is marked with “Community Monitoring Results”, to differentiate our results from the official results from a municipality.

Please note: The authority to open or close a beach remains with the local health department or city. Results posted to Ottawa Riverkeeper Monitoring Site beaches DO NOT dictate whether the beach is open or closed. Our results are provided solely so beachgoers can make informed decisions when deciding to visit a beach. 

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