By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
KILJ — Recent warm weather has had many families packing up and headed to a local beach to get some relief.
Routine water quality monitoring is conducted at all of the State Park beaches and many locally managed beaches in Iowa.
Outdoor recreation at beaches in Iowa is typically limited to the time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Beaches that exceed Iowa’s mean water quality standard for indicator bacteria will be posted with a warning sign that states: “Swimming is Not Recommended”.
Locally Lake Darling near Brighton has been put on the “Swimming Not Recommended” list with an E. coli count in excess of 550.
Lake Wapello, Lake Keosauqua and Water Works Park in Fairfield all have counts well below the level of concern. Testing was last done on June 15th.
Lake Darling joined Dennison Beach in Black Hawk State Park as the only area not recommended for swimming.