Belle Isle Park beach closes due to high E. coli levels

Belle Isle Park's beach closed Monday morning due to high E. coli levels.

According to a Detroit Health Department official, the results from a sample taken from the beach last week were available to the city health department and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Saturday. Still, people swam in the bacteria-filled water for two days, even after high levels were detected.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources manages Belle Isle.

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According to results from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the latest samples showed Belle Isle had a daily mean of 920.67 E. coli per 100 mL. This is over three times the normal limit. The cause is not known.

“It’s generally attributed to runoff but again, without running samples that are DNA based, I couldn’t say exactly what happened," MDNR urban district supervisor Tom Bissett said. "Last week when we took the samples, you remember the weather that came from the hurricane, so this may have been something that contributed to it.”

Injesting E. coli can cause diarrhea and food poisoning, or more serious illnesses like pneumonia.

Bissett says samples are typically taken from the beach every Wednesday to test for dangerous bacteria. He says last Wednesday was no different.

"We try to shoot for Wednesday because ideally you’re gonna get (the results) back before the weekend," Bissett said.

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MDNR contracts an independent lab to test the sample collected and results are typically available within 48 hours, or by Friday every week. He says the Detroit Health Department then has access to those results and can make determinations about which beaches are safe in the city and which are not.

However, this sample was only returned Saturday and wasn't seen by the city health department until Monday. We reached out to the health department to ask why a bacteria-filled beach remained open over the weekend and they provided the statement below:

"Belle Isle is under the full direction and control of The Michigan DNR, which also conducts water testing near Belle Isle Beach. The MDNR received its lab results on Saturday for samples taken on Wednesday. Those results showed elevated levels of E. coli. Typically, MDNR has taken it upon itself to close the Bell Isle Beach when this occurs. While the MDNR did forward the Detroit Health Department a courtesy copy of the analysis report on Saturday, our environmental staff did not see it until today. We will be meeting with MDNR staff to make sure they know they have the full authority to close the beach at Belle Isle to protect park visitors when water quality is a health concern."

-Denise Fair Razo, Chief Public Health Officer for the Detroit Health Department

Last year, the beach on Belle Isle was closed for several days. But there were still hundreds of people at the beach and dozens in the water. Bissett says this year is different.

Watch our report from 2023 on the beach closure below:

“We’ve enhanced our ability to enforce that... we can physically ask you, hey get out of the water, and you have to comply. It’s now a law. It’s an administrative rule," he said. "So we’ve enhanced a lot of stuff since the last time. Obviously, a lot of folks said that they weren’t aware.”

Temporary fencing surrounded the beach Monday and workers were asking people too close to the water to back up. The parking lot near the beach was also closed to the public while Belle Isle remained open to all other activities.

“Well, it’s kind of disappointing but hey, we can’t do anything about it," Detroit resident Tamika Murff said as she was hoping to get in the water Monday.

Once the high levels of E. coli were detected by officials Monday morning, the water was retested and MDNR is awaiting results to see if the water has returned to normal levels and if the beach can be reopened.