High E. coli counts detected at 3 West Vancouver beaches

Health officials are warning people against swimming at three West Vancouver beaches after routine water quality sampling turned up E.coli bacteria counts exceeding safe-levellimits.

No Swimming advisories are now ineffect for Ambleside, Dundarave and Sandy Cove beaches.

Health officials say therelatively high concentrationof E.coli bacteria detected canincrease a swimmer'srisk of coming down withgastro-intestinal illness.

E.coli is considered to be an indicator organism associatedwith fecal contamination from either human or animal
sources.

Vancouver Coastal Health saysit is investigating the cause of the elevated bacteria count.

E. coli counts for the Vancouver-area beaches are updated every Friday, based on sampling results provided by the Greater Vancouver Regional District Water Quality Laboratory.

Click here to be taken to the weekly beach water quality reports.