{"id":320,"date":"2022-02-17T14:04:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T19:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/?post_type=answer&#038;p=320"},"modified":"2022-04-06T11:44:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T15:44:18","slug":"swim-safety","status":"publish","type":"answer","link":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/answer\/swim-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"how-can-we-determine-if-it-is-safe-to-swim-surf-and-paddle-in-the-watershed\">How can we determine if it is safe to swim, surf and paddle in the watershed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to recreational water quality and swim safety one of the first things measured is the concentration of <em>E.Coli<\/em> present in the water. <em>E.coli<\/em> is one of several \u201cindicator\u201d bacteria used to assess whether or not being in the water could be a potential health risk. The presence of <em>E.Coli<\/em> in surface waters can be an indication of untreated sewage, industrial wastes, toxic substances and debris from sanitary sewage and street rubbish. High levels of <em>E.coli<\/em> may be caused by stormwater runoff following heavy rain, or combined sewers overflows (CSO) that carry both untreated sewage and stormwater. In addition, large bird populations have also been known to contribute to high <em>E.coli<\/em>. Exposure to <em>E.Coli<\/em> and other similar bacteria in the water may have negative health consequences\u00a0 such as gastroenteritis (stomach flu), ear, eye and skin infections, and acute respiratory illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/answer\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/answer"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/answer"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottawariverkeeper.ca\/discovery-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}