Improved Nowcast system will provide more accurate beach conditions in 2009 

Bacteria levels determine whether it's safe to swim at a beach, and health officials have struggled for years to find an accurate and timely way to inform the public about current conditions. The conventional method of measuring bacteria levels involves taking water samples and growing bacteria cultures in a lab. This time-consuming method produces results that are always a day or two old. By the time the information can be posted at the beach, conditions have often changed.

So researchers have been developing a new method to forecast beach water quality in advance. It's called Nowcast, and it's similar to a weather forecast. However, instead of predicting future weather conditions, the Nowcast system predicts current water quality conditions. Specifically, computer models are used to predict whether bacteria levels are low enough to meet state bathing water standards.

Two Lake Erie beaches — Huntington and Edgewater — will be covered by Nowcast during the 2009 swimming season. The Edgewater Nowcast models will consider factors such as wave height, recent rainfall, and water clarity. The quick, on-site prediction of compliance with bathing water quality standards allows for timely posting of swimming advisories.

A Nowcast prediction of water quality will be provided each morning by 9:30 a.m. seven days a week beginning Monday, May 18 through Labor Day. Go here for online updates, or call the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Beach Water Quality Information Line at 216-432-7301. The Nowcast prediction also will be posted at the entrance of Edgewater Beach.

Beach users who are consulting the Nowcast should be aware that water quality conditions can deteriorate rapidly as a result of storm conditions. The Nowcast program does not account for water quality changes which happen after the morning Nowcast is issued.

The Nowcast System at Edgewater Beach is supported by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), Cleveland Lakefront State Park, Cleveland Department of Public Health, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Ohio Department of Health, and United States Geological Survey.

Other beaches under consideration for the Nowcast system are Villa Angela and Euclid Beach. However, given complexities at those two beaches, the timeframe for developing the models to support Nowcast has not yet been determined.

"Given the complexity of variables at these two beaches, significant additional research is needed to develop models which drive the Nowcast predictions," says NEORSD's Frank Greenland. "Objectives of our research are to better understand the significance of the wide variety of factors, including the presence of water fowl at the beach and the influence of Lake Erie currents and the fate of pollutants discharged from Euclid Creek."

Future NEORSD research efforts include the refinement of source tracking capabilities, which will help to pin-point specific sources of bacteria; and the installation of velocity meters at the mouth of Euclid Creek to track the movement of the Euclid Creek discharge plume when it reaches Lake Erie currents.

In addition to significant beach research, NEORSD plans to reduce the impact of bacteria through two large-scale programs – the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long-term Control Plan and the Stormwater Management Program. Like many older Midwest cities, Cleveland’s sewer system was built using combined sewers, which carries a combination of sewage and rain water in one pipe. When the pipes become too full and are unable to contain the flow, the mixture of sewage and rain water is discharged into a local body of water. When the District was formed in 1972, nearly 10 billion gallons of the sewage and rain water mixture were discharged into local bodies of water. To date, the District has been able to reduce that amount by 5 billion gallons with further reductions planned over the course of the next several years.

The District’s future CSO plan includes the construction of the Euclid Creek Tunnel, which acts like a large storage tank for the untreated mixture of sewage and rain water. The untreated mixture of sewage and rain water will be released to the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment rather than released to a local waterway. Upon completion, it is estimated that the Euclid Creek Tunnel will prevent about 700 million gallons of the untreated sewage and rainwater mixture from entering local waterways.

Additionally, NEORSD’s Stormwater Management Program, which is scheduled to launch in 2010, will address the impacts of stormwater on erosion and flooding problems, as well as help to reduce the pollutant load to beaches and local streams.

More information on Ohio beach conditions