Swimmers have been warned to avoid several Maine beaches after officials made a gruesome discovery in the water.
Beaches in Portland, Ogunquit, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Camden, Rockport and more were flagged Friday due to high bacteria levels, the report said. News Center Maine.
As members of the Maine Healthy Beaches program conducted routine testing, officials discovered alarming levels of enterococcal bacteria — microorganisms that indicate possible contamination from fecal waste.
Meagan Sims, Maine Department of Environment coordinator, told the local news outlet that signs are often posted along the coast to alert beachgoers when a warning has been issued.
“Our protocol if we have elevated bacteria is to always make every effort to resample that location,” Sims said.
Swimmers have been warned to avoid several Maine beaches, including Kennebunkport (pictured) due to high levels of enterococcal bacteria
Enterococcus does not cause flesh-rotting necrotizing fasciitis, but it still leads to serious health problems.
The bacteria are a common cause of urinary tract infections, endocarditis (an infection of the heart valves), and blood infections.
It enters the body when contaminated water is swallowed or comes into contact with an open wound. Infection through wounds can lead to abscesses.
Enterococcus can not only cause urinary tract infections, which affect the bladder, urethra and kidneys, and endocarditis, but can also cause bloodstream infections called bacteremia, meningitis which leads to inflammation in the membranes surrounding the brain, and gum infections.
The infections are typically treated with antibiotics. But many strains have evolved to evade the drugs, posing challenges to treating them effectively.
In addition to the potential exposure to bacteria, other Maine officials are sounding the alarm about other beach safety hazards.
Lifeguards at Old Orchard Beach have had to rescue several people from the currents, and erosion caused by off-season storms have brought new dangers.
Maine officials are sounding the alarm about dangers at Old Orchard Beach (photo), such as rip currents and erosion hazards
“It will be a challenging summer for our public safety,” said Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief John Gilboy WMTW.
“The storms this past winter really changed the beach and it did a lot of damage to the dunes. It changed the ocean floor so that now we have sandbars in places we didn’t have, and now we have rip currents in places we didn’t have.”
At least five feet of sand has washed away from under the pier, exposing rocks, debris and pipelines.
Dozens of beaches in San Diego were closed on Tuesday due to sewage that caused alarmingly high bacteria levels in the open water.
Water closures were declared for Silver Strand Shoreline, Imperial Beach Shorelines and Tijuana Slough Shoreline, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Advisories have been issued for La Jolla, Children’s Pool, Coronado, Coronado Lifeguard Tower, Ocean Beach, Dog Beach, the San Diego River Outlet, Mission Bay, North Cove and Vacation Isle.