Ice House Pond is closed again for swimming as of Wednesday morning due to high bacterial counts.
Water samples taken Monday morning of the freshwater swimming hole in West Tisbury tested above the state limit for enterococci, a bacteria that can cause infections, according to land bank land manager Ian Peach.
Mr. Peach said a repeat test showed a count of nearly 96 bacteria colonies per hundred milliliters, well above the state threshold of 61 colonies per hundred milliliters.
“You can walk the trails, look at the pond, walk out on the dock and take photographs. We just advise people not to swim,” he said.
The spike in bacteria continues a pattern from late last month when the pond was closed for six days.
“There always seems to be one or two spikes. At this point having one or two isn’t alarming to me,” Mr. Peach said.
He said it’s still unclear what is causing the spikes, but the recent heat wave warming up the pond could be a reason.
Samples will be collected daily for the rest of the week and sent to the Wampanoag laboratory in Aquinnah, along with a test next Monday. If bacteria levels fall below the allowable state limit, Mr. Peach said the pond could open Tuesday.
“We want people to be able to swim in the hot weather, but we don’t want anybody getting sick,” he said. “As soon as we feel like it’s safe and we get the okay from the state, we’ll open it back up.”
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