Ten beaches safe for swimming in Ajax, Clarington, Pickering and Whitby; none in Oshawa

In a full reversal from last week, ten of Durham Region’s beaches are safe for swimming and four are posted as unsafe.

The Region runs weekly bacteria tests to ensure the waters of Lake Ontario, Lake Scugog and Lake Simcoe have low enough levels to wade in. The summer started strong with all beaches open in the first round. However, some heavy rains across the region led to the closing of all beaches the following week.

By June 29, only four had stabilized, meaning they were the only beaches available for the Canada Day long weekend. In the most recent round of testing ten were found to be safe;

• Paradise Beach (Ajax)
• Beaverton South and Thorah Centennial Park (Brock)
• Bowmanville East, Bowmanville West, and Newcastle Beach Central (Clarington)
• Frenchman’s Bay East and Frenchman’s Bay West (Pickering)
• Heydenshore Park and Iroquois Beach (Whitby)

Four remain closed;

• Beaverton North (Brock)
• Lakeview Beach East and Lakeview Beach West (Oshawa)
• Kinsmen Beach (Scugog)