SEQUIM — A Clallam County environmental health official is mystified by the sudden rise and fall of bacteria in the water off Cline Spit Beach.
Cline Spit, located on Dungeness Bay north of Sequim, was closed to swimming and wading Aug. 14 because of high levels of enterococcus bacteria, which is found in the feces of warm-blooded creatures, including humans.
The beach was reopened for recreation Friday after results of tests on samples taken Wednesday arrived.
Bacteria levels reached as high as 19,863 per 100 milliliters at one site Aug. 17, then fell to less than 10 bacteria per 100 milliliters of water by Wednesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency and Washington BEACH program’s threshold level for automatic closure is an average of 276 bacteria per 100 of milliliters of water.
“If you get to 276, then you have to close the beach,” said Carol Creasey of the Clallam County Health and Human Services Environmental Health Section.
If levels subsequently fall below 104 bacteria per 100 milliliters of water, the beach may be reopened.
The origin of the bacteria discovered this month is unknown, Creasey said.
The park receives drainage from nearby farms and homes served by septic systems.
The reason for the bacteria’s rapid dissolution also is unknown, Creasey said.
It is possible the bacteria “either got diluted or flushed out” by seawater currents, “or some type of combination. It is a real puzzle,” she said.
More samples will be collected for study today.
The Aug. 14 closure came after a sample taken Aug. 11 showed the presence of 1,014 bacteria per 100 milliliters of water.
The largest concentration of bacteria was discovered in samples taken Aug. 17 at three separate sites.
“We sample at three locations, and all those values were high,” Creasey said.
Creasey noted that on Aug. 17, site A had 19,863 per 100 milliliters, site B had 4,106 per 100 milliliters and site C had 17,329 per 100 milliliters.
“That is very large,” Creasey said.
“That is the highest I have seen since I have been here.”
She said the beach, which incorporates about 240 feet of tidelands a half-mile west of Dungeness Landing County Park, saw a maximum of just 52 bacteria per 100 milliliters of seawater in the entirety of 2014.
The closure did not affect fishing or crabbing, although people were advised to avoid contact with the water.
Contact with fecal-contaminated water — especially through a lesion in the skin — can cause skin rashes, gastroenteritis and upper respiratory infections.
Swallowing water with high levels of enterococcus can cause diarrhea or vomiting.
Children and elderly people may be more susceptible to water-borne illnesses, health officials said.
The Cline Spit closure came a week after Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles was reopened following its latest short closure for similar pollution.
Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles was closed Aug. 6, just more than a month after it had been shut down for fecal bacteria-contaminated water over the Fourth of July weekend. Touch tanks at the Feiro Marine Life Center on City Pier also were closed.
In both Hollywood Beach closures, the origin of the bacteria was unknown.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
