toronto beaches

These popular Toronto beaches are unsafe for swimming right now

After weeks of Toronto having some of the Earth's worst air pollution, it's now the local water that is taking a hit in quality.

A number of Toronto's most popular swimming spots have been flagged by the city as being unsafe to swim in including Centre Island Beach, Kew Balmy Beach, and Bluffer's Beach Park.

Each beach has found high amounts of E.coli in the water from quality samples taken over the past 24 hours. Toronto measures Colony Forming Units (CFU) of E.coli during its tests and a CFU of over 100 per 100mL of water is deemed unsafe.

The worst of the beaches proved to be Bluffer's Beach Park which had a CFU 0f 251 compared to 218 at Kew Balmy and just 127 at Centre Island Beach.

By comparison, Cherry Beach has the cleanest swimming water in the city currently, measuring in at only 11 CFU/100mL.

The loss of Centre Island should be felt hardest as the 660m long  beach is among the largest in the city. However, with the weekend expected to have its fair share of rain and storms, it's not exactly the best beach water to begin with.

Toronto may not be known for its beaches, but having the option to go swimming has always been a positive about living in Canada's largest city. However, that positive mark will shine a little brighter once things get cleaned up and all the beaches can safely open to the public.

Lead photo by

Fareen Karim


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