Before you leap: Ithaca’s Six Mile Creek tests for unsafe E.coli levels with no public notice

Swimmers at Second Dam. Published with permission from Joe Braun

By Andy Casler

On hot summer days, Six Mile Creek is a popular swimming and cliff diving spot for locals. However, few people know that the creek recently tested for amounts of E. coli bacteria that exceed the New York state standards for safe freshwater swimming.

Recent water testing shows that the water between Second Dam and First Dam contained 45 Colony Forming Units [cfu] of E. coli above the state’s 235 cfu/ 100 ml limit for freshwater beaches on June 15, 2010.

According to Community Science Institute’s [CSI] online database, Six Mile Creek contained 280 cfu of E.coli/ 100 ml sample, an amount of E. coli that N.Y. deems hazardous for swimmers. Though Six Mile Creek is a popular swimming spot, high E. coli levels did not result in the swimming areas being closed because swimming in the creek is illegal.

Since swimming in Six Mile Creek is illegal, and the water samples have not indicated an exponential rise in pollutants, the City of Ithaca is not investigating the stream’s E. coli levels or making the public aware that the water tested as too dirty for human recreation.

Though a single test for E.coli levels above 235cfu/ 100 ml sample will get any N.Y. swimming area temporarily closed, no notice was made for the high amounts of E. coli in Six Mile. This year the swimming areas at Butter Milk Falls and Robert H. Treman State Park were each closed twice because of high E. coli levels according to Deputy Press Officer of the New York State Parks Dan Keefe.

At First Dam, there isn’t a single no-swimming sign posted and there is only one no-swimming notice at Second Dam. The sign at Second Dam is only visible from one side of the gorge, and not visible at other sides of the gorge where swimmers often enter the water.

At Mulholland Wildflower Preserve, one of the several trailheads leading to  Second Dam, there is also only one sign. Along with the no swimming rule, the sign posts other ordinances that are commonly broken.

With a sparsely-posted no swimming signs, many Ithacans have been swimming in water that is unhealthy and could cause serious ailments.  For Ithacans who do swim in Six Mile Creek, it’s not wise to enter the water after a rainstorm.

Kate Haggerty a water quality assistant for the New York State Parks is involved in testing local freshwater beaches. With water quality testing,  “the results vary from week to week greatly depending on weather, especially rainfall,” Haggerty said.

Simply avoiding the water after a major rainstorm isn’t a foolproof rule of thumb at Mulholland. The sample of 280 cfu/100ml sample of E. coli was obtained at the stream’s base-flow stage. Base flow is described as a river’s regular flow under normal conditions, which has less washed-in pollutants than at flood stage. During a river’s flood stage the flow is approximately two times more than base flow. Pollutants get carried off to the nearest body of water when there are high water flow conditions.

Symptoms of E. coli infection begin about seven days after you contract the germ. The first symptom is severe abdominal craps nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea causing dehydration. The diarrhea lasts for about a day and then the infection makes sores in your intestines and leads to red, bloody stool. Bloody diarrhea can last from two to five days.

Roxanna Johnston, the watershed coordinator for Ithaca, says that for the drinking water that comes out of Six Mile Creek, E. coli levels are still low enough to not affect the quality of Ithaca’s treated water. The water treatment plant cleans all E. coli from drinking water before it reaches any utility users. “We’re not allowed to have any E. coli at all get through the plant,” Johnston said, in regard to E.coli in Ithaca’s tap water.

When asked about the safety of swimming in Six Mile, Johnston is more wary of the physical dangers of swimming at the dams, like jumping into the water from the gorge’s edge – as many swimmers at Second and First Dam do. But in regards to water pollutants like E. coli Johnston says: “I don’t think it would be necessarily unsafe to take a dip, but that all gets really qualitative. For whatever reason if your immune system is compromised it might not be as good for you.”

*An earlier version of this article is published in the October 201o issue of Buzzsaw magazine