Lions Bay Beach Reopens to Swimming
- kc dyer
- Aug 7
- 1 min read
VCH lifts water restrictions
After almost a month of closure, Lions Bay Beach is once again considered suitable for swimming by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).
VCH monitors water quality through weekly testing at beaches around the Lower Mainland to ensure it does not present a risk of illness or infection to swimmers.
On their website, VCH notes that beach water quality can be affected by many environmental factors including currents, tides, wildlife populations and weather.
In this case, Lions Bay Beach water was found to have unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, a fecal bacteria commonly found in the intestinal tract of animals and humans, when tested on July 12.
VCH follows Canadian guidelines, which use a combination of a maximum geometric mean (the average of samples over time), and a single-sample maximum limit, which allows for evaluation of the water quality both in the short term and over time.
The most recent tests on August 4 showed a drop in the fecal coliform values to within acceptable limits, and the beach is now open.
Both Brunswick and Kelvin Grove Beaches, neither of which were subject to the same closures in July, also remain open.
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