Michigan summers and beach days go hand-in-hand but not every seeming oasis is a safe place to dip your toes.
Before packing a cooler, towels, sand toys and an umbrella and heading to your local beach, check this list of 14 beaches that, as of Thursday afternoon, July 22, are closed or under contamination advisories for high bacteria levels.
The notifications are made as part of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s Beach Guard system. Each beach’s status is subject to change as new test results come in. To see an up-to-date map of the red-flagged beaches and details on the water quality tests, check the Beach Guard website here.
The Beach Guard site gives the public information on beach water quality across the state. It includes water sampling results and daily updates on which beaches are under advisories or have been closed. The data covers 1,224 public beaches and 575 private ones.
Here are the 13 closures and advisories:
- Park Lake, Bath Township Park Lake Beach, Clinton County – CONTAMINATION ADVISORY since June 15 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source.
- Ross Lake, Beaverton City Park, Gladwin County – CONTAMINATION ADVISORY since June 30 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source.
- Handsome Lake, Crossroads For Youth, Oakland County – CLOSED since July 7 due to high bacteria levels from wildlife. The beach was also closed from June 29-July 6 and June 22 due to stormwater runoff.
- Houghton Lake, Denton Township Public Beach, Roscommon County – CONTAMINATION ADVISORY since July 14 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source. The beach was also under an advisory on July 8 for the same reason.
- Lake Superior, Ontonagon Lakeshore Park, Public Shoreline Beach, Ontonagon County – CONTAMINATION ADVISORY since July 21 due to high bacteria levels.
- Wixom Lake, Wixom Water, Midland County – CLOSED since July 15 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source.
- Lake Isabella, South Park, Isabella County – CONTAMINATION ADVISORY since July 15 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source.
- Pontiac Lake, Pontiac Recreation Area, Oakland County – CLOSED since July 21 due to high bacteria levels due to wildlife. The beach was also closed on July 8 and June 30 due to runoff.
- Lake Michigan, Memorial Beach, Menominee County – CLOSED since July 21 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source.
- Fox Lake, Cloister-on-the-Lakes, Oakland County – CLOSED since July 22 due to high bacteria levels from stormwater runoff. The beach was also closed on June 10 due to wildlife.
- Elizabeth Lake, Elizabeth Lake Estates Improvement Association, Oakland County – CLOSED since July 22 due to high bacteria levels from stormwater runoff.
- Charnwood Lake, Charnwood beach, Oakland County – CLOSED since July 22 due to high bacteria levels from stormwater runoff. The beach was also closed on June 23-24 for the same reason.
Lake St. Clair, St. Clair Shores Memorial Park Beach, Macomb County – CLOSED since July 22 due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source. The beach was under a contamination advisory for the same reason from July 15-21, July 8-12 and June 24-28. The beach was closed for the same reason from July 13-14, June 29-July 7, and June 15 and 17-23.
This article appeared in MLive. Read more here.