Community Corner
Beach Closings For July 8, 2011: Deer Head in Lacey
Getting ready for a weekend at the beach? Not so fast. Make sure it's open first. Every week from May to Labor Day, the Ocean County Health Department travels to each salt- and fresh-water location in our fair county to test them for bacteria.
Things like enterococcus or fecal coliform are measured in Ocean County lakes and beach fronts several times a week to determine if it is safe for swimming, according to the Ocean County Health Department.
Enterococcus is highly resistant to antibiotics, which makes it difficult to fight and thusly more dangerous for humans.
Exposure to too much fecal coliform may lead to dysentery or typhoid fever.
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The health department measures how safe the water is to swim in by measuring the number of bacterial colonies in 100 milliliters of water taken from each swimming location in Ocean County.
If there are more than 104 colonies of enterococcus per 100 milliliters of salt water, a beach may be closed and then tested again every day until the water is well within the standard.
Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Similarly, more than 200 colonies of fecal coliform per 100 milliliters of fresh water warrant a beach closing. Again, the water would be tested daily until the levels are deemed safe.
This weekend, only one beach is closed because of bacteria: the upper beach at Deer Head Lake in Lacey Township due to higher than normal levels of fecal coliform in the water (210 colonies of bacteria per 100 milliliters).
No other beaches are close to being closed this weekend, according to the most recent tests.
Come back next Friday and all summer for an update to beach closings in Ocean County.
