It has been a challenging summer so far for one of Nova Scotia's most popular beaches.
The road to Queensland Beach has been fixed, but now there's another problem -- bacteria.
Monday was a perfect day for the beach, but Queensland was closed to swimmers.
Still, the weather was warm enough that some still took the plunge.
“We took it as our own discretion kind of thing,” said beachgoer Danae Iatrou.“I came out here, I was excited for a swim, it’s been not so great the past couple days, so I'm risking it!”
Another beachgoer, Nick Bremner, also didn’t seem concerned.
“Being a local I think I can take whatever's in the water,” he said. “I'm not concerned.”
Test results on Friday found high levels of “enterococci” in the water, which comes from mammal feces.
The organization that gathers water samples at 23 Nova Scotia beaches says it's hard to know exactly where it comes from.
“It could be runoff, people walk their dogs, dogs do their business on the beach and it runs off, it's all kinds of possibilities or combinations of possibilities,” said Paul D’Eon, the director of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service.
D'Eon says the biggest concern is getting a big mouthful of water. Ingesting it could cause diarrhea or vomiting, a particular concern for young children.
Lifeguards are telling visitors that, if they want to go for a swim, to head to Bayswater Beach, which is the next lifeguarded beach, about 25 kilometres away.
Cottage owner Bruce Reardon says it's been a rough summer so far for Queensland Beach.
“I've been here 40 years, every summer, never closed, ever,” he said.
The provincial government just finished repairing the beach road and parking lot after it was torn apart by winter storms.
That took months and the beach reopening had plenty of parking problems.
“They just did a tremendous job of rebuilding the entire beach,” said Reardon.“We've got this lake, and we test it, and we protect it, my grandkids swim in it all summer, and it's good, but out there, I don't know what happened.”
More samples from the beach were sent in Monday morning and results could be back by late Tuesday.
“We get the results and we go to the Department of Environment,” said D’Eon. “And, based on those results, they make a determination whether the beach is closed, or open, or whether we re-test.”
If results are good, the beach could reopen to swimming Wednesday.
If not, that means more testing, and no swimming.
Queensland isn't the only Nova Scotia beach closed to swimming. Heather beach in Cumberland County is also closed to swimmers because of high bacteria levels.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Heidi Petracek.
