Three beaches unsafe from swimming in Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering

The weekly beach bacteria results are in showing a big improvement over last week. However, three beaches in Ajax, Oshawa and Pickering remain unsafe for swimming.

Durham Region tests all 14 of its beaches every week to ensure bacteria levels are low enough for swimmers to safely enjoy the water. They were off to a strong start when they began testing finding all beaches were safe on June 5. They did note that while overall safe, there was a blue-green algae advisory on Lake Scugog.

Unfortunately, the next week was harder on beachgoers. After days of heavy rain, all beaches showed too much bacteria leading the region to label them all unsafe. The third time was the charm though. The test for the week of June 19 show only three beaches are still unsafe;

• Ajax’s Paradise Beach at Lakeview Blvd. and Paradise Ln.
• Oshawa’s Lakeview Beach West at Kluane Ave. and Lakeview Park Ave. and
• Pickering’s Frenchman’s Bay West at West Shore Blvd. and Beachpoint Pr.

All other beaches in the region are marked safe from e. coli including;

• Brock
  • Beaverton North Beach (Wellington St. and Victoria St.)
  • Beaverton South Beach (Simcoe St. & Harbour Park Cr.)
  • Thorah Centennial Park (Shoreline Rd. RR#47 and Thorah Concession Rd. 9)
• Clarington
  • Bowmanville East (Port Darlington Rd. and East Beach Rd.)
  • Bowmanville West (West Beach Rd. and Cove Rd.)
  • Newcastle Beach Central (Mill St. South and Boulton St.)
• Oshawa
  • Lakeview Beach East (Simcoe St. S. and Lakeview Park Ave.)
• Pickering
  • Frenchman’s Bay East (Wharf St. and Liverpool Rd.)
• Scugog
  • Kinsmen Beach (Palmer Park – Water St. and Mary St.)
• Whitby
  • Iroquois Beach (Gordon St. and Waterfront Trail)
  • Whitby Beach (Heydenshore Park – South Blair St. and Water St.)