The Lake Ontario Waterkeeper wants the city to conduct regular water testing in Toronto’s inner harbour, after its own sampling program revealed variable water quality that in one location failed to meet provincial E. coli standards almost 80 per cent of the time.

Samples from the busiest sampling location, meanwhile, met the provincial safety standard 85 per cent of the time.

“It shows the importance of sampling on a regular basis,” said Krystyn Tully, the vice president of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

On poor water quality days people shouldn’t let water splash into their eyes, ears, nose or mouth and should wash their hands when they leave the water, she said.

Toronto Public Health notes swimming in water with high E. coli levels increases the risk of ear, nose and throat infections, skin rashes, upset stomachs and diarrhea. Dr. Howard Shapiro, the agency’s associate medical officer of health, said “the public health impacts of recreation on open water (as opposed to beaches) require further research to determine the need and standards for this kind of testing.”

He added that testing harbour waters is outside Toronto Public Health’s mandate as the harbour is the joint responsibility of the provincial and federal governments.

This summer the Waterkeeper tested water quality weekly at three locations in the harbour between May 17 and Sept. 6.

Samples were taken near the Bathurst Quay by the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre, by the Rees Street Slip at Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre and near Marina 4 by the former Purina PawsWay building — all popular spots for boaters and paddlers and close to sewage outfalls, which dump untreated or partially treated sewage and runoff into the lake, the report notes.

“On the days where there isn’t a sewage injection into the water the ambient water quality is actually quite good... when it is overflowing, it’s quite poor,” Tully said.

At Rees Street, one of the busiest locations for paddlers, 85 per cent of samples met the provincial E. coli standard of 100 colony forming units (cfu) per mL. Meanwhile, 60 per cent of samples from Marina 4 and 22 per cent from the Bathurst Quay met the standard.

The highest E. coli levels were detected at Bathurst Quay after a heavy rainfall. Samples taken that day showed E. coli levels 67 times higher than the provincial standard.

While water quality was its worst after heavy rains at the Rees Street and Marina 4 locations, the Bathurst Quay, where there seemed to be more constant sewage loading, was “its own beast,” Tully said.

Meanwhile, the report noted water at the 11 beaches where the city collects daily water samples met safety standards 87 per cent of the time over the same period.

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Alongside regular sampling, the Waterkeeper wants the city to publish real-time information about sewage overflows.

Similar calls have been made at the provincial level by Progressive Conservative MPP Sylvia Jones who put forward a private members bill in May that would require the province to publish when and where overflows occur within 24 hours of receiving reports from municipalities.

While Lou Di Gironimo, general manger of Toronto Water, said in a statement that the city has plans to drastically improve water quality and essentially eliminate sewage overflows in the inner harbour and elsewhere over the next 25 years, implementing a real time monitoring system in the meantime would cost millions of dollars. The city does provide annual estimates of sewage overflows to Environment Canada, he noted.