It was hot this summer. Very hot. And it will be even hotter in the future. Hence the need for safe beaches for swimming, especially in Verdun!
At Fondation Rivières, public access to our waterways is important and the water must be of good quality. In Quebec, the recommended limit ofE. Coli in beaches and swimming is 200 CFU/100mL. In other words, if we want to take a dip in a river or lake, we want to be sure that the presence of these bacteria is acceptable, because they are a good indicator of more dangerous pathogens.
This summer, we partnered with several municipalities and organizations to carry out pilot projects aimed at studying the recreational quality of their waters. My colleagues and I have had a busy and busy summer navigating the inevitable challenges that come with implementing new studies. Field science always has surprises in store!
The challenge at Verdun beach: keeping the beach open
In Verdun, the municipality has already worked hard to offer a beautiful beach to the population. And every day, the City of Montreal sends water samples to be analyzed to ensure your safety. In addition, the beach is closed as a precaution for up to 72 hours after heavy rain, to prevent bathers from coming into contact with potentially contaminated water following an overflow of sewage. The main issue with the current protocol is that these analyzes require a minimum of 24 hours to be completed, meaning that water quality conditions are still confirmed days later. Obviously, this is not optimal.
This summer, we therefore worked with the City of Montreal to improve their water quality monitoring, which currently faces the limits of samples analyzed in the laboratory. Previous studies carried out by Polytechnique Montréal showed the potential for near real-time analysis of the biological quality of water for swimming at Verdun Beach in 2018. Thanks to Polytechnique, we had access to the equipment necessary to carry out this type of analysis, a machine called ColiMinder which analyzes the enzymatic activity of water and gives us an idea of the amount ofE. Coli present in the sample.
During the project, curious bathers approached me to ask me what we were doing. I would therefore like to take a moment to describe the journey of this project, and in particular, our challenges!
Project manager and plumber if necessary
As is often the case with field work, we almost immediately hit a roadblock, as the machine's computer had to be replaced unexpectedly. While we anxiously awaited the arrival of our new computer, we were on site preparing the other major installations this project required. In order to be able to continuously measure water quality, we needed a continuous supply of water to the beach to be analyzed, which meant we needed a pump! For some strange reason, the pump originally chosen for this project flew off the shelves this summer, causing us additional delays.
We coordinated with a specialist for the installation, who agreed for me to accompany him so that we could independently remove and install the pump for next season.
Let me tell you, I didn't expect to be swimming and lugging a submersible pump and hoses in 10 feet of water!
But I gave it a go, and Roger took the particular circumstances head on and managed to install our pump and connect it to the container (100 m from the pump, where our ColiMinder is safely stored)! For all the swimming enthusiasts who saw us that day, we were worth the trip.
Naturally, our troubleshooting couldn't stop there. Remember I mentioned that the pump was to supply water to our machine 100m away? The standby model we chose did an excellent job, but with an impressive flow rate of 0.3 m3 per minute – which, frankly, is far too high a flow rate for our device which requires very low flow rates.
So it was back to the beach, this time coordinating with the town plumber to come up with a creative solution to our problem. It took us a few tries, but we finally managed to modify the container pipes to divert a section of the flow such that we were able to reduce it and hook up our machine successfully.

A promising project for swimming in Verdun!
Since then the ColiMinder takes regular measurements of the beach water, which, considering all the problems this summer, is quite an achievement. Now that we have sorted out the logistical aspects of the project, I am particularly excited about the possibility of improving swimming access and safety! From next year, we will be able to confirm the daily variations measured by ColiMinder. This means we will be able to analyze a water sample in 15 minutes and on demand, rather than relying solely on traditional methods which give us our results several days after the fact. Our ultimate goal is to optimize the current monitoring protocol: after all, we want you to make the most of your summer season in the water!
For my part, despite a difficult start to our installations, I cannot complain about having spent many summer mornings having my first coffee of the day in front of such a panorama!
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About the author
Lena Szymoniak