Sunscreen? Check! Beach toys and towels? Check! Snacks for the kids? Check!
But is the lake water safe to swim or play in?
Now there's an app and a website for that in Lake County, where anyone can check to see if a beach has been closed because of a high bacteria count.
Meghan Poulsom of Highland Park said she would definitely use something like that because her children, Harrison, 6, and Grace, 4, love the beach.
"We live on the beach in the summer," she said. "A friend of mine's grandparents live on (Lake Michigan), so sometimes we swim there. We've had a couple of times where we are in the water and a neighbor will come out and say 'Has the ban been lifted?' and we're like 'What?' "
"I think this would come in real handy for us," said Poulsom, as her children played in the sun and sand at Sunrise Beach in Lake Bluff.
The Lake County Health Department's Lakes Management Unit monitors just over 100 beaches — 90 inland and 13 Lake Michigan, and Memorial Day is traditionally the start of the swim season.
"When our water sampling tests indicate a high bacteria count, a swim ban is issued to keep people out of the water until the water quality improves," said Mike Adams, senior biologist with the health department. The beach advisory website for the county will alert you to low, elevated or high bacteria readings. Elevated calls for caution and high readings means the beach is closed.
In addition, the health department has joined with the Great Lakes Commission, feeding them data on the 13 Lake Michigan beaches for its new, free smartphone app called MyBeachCast. The app tracks beaches in the eight Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. It not only tells whether the beach is open or closed, but also gives the temperature, humidity, visibility and wind speed.
Adams said the county starts testing in May. Lake Michigan beaches are sampled four days a week for E. coli. Inland beaches are tested biweekly. While not all E. coli bacteria are the same (they are found in the small intestine of most warm-blooded animals), some can make swimmers sick if they are ingested in high enough concentrations. About 10 percent of the tests exceed water quality standards.
A beach will close if water samples come back high for E. coli and a sign is posted.
"High bacteria counts may be caused by stormwater runoff, sewage overflow, nearby septic failure or large quantities of droppings from geese or sea gulls," said Adams.
North Point Marina beaches near Zion have had problems with a lot of sea gulls in the past that have caused closings.
"When our water sampling tests indicate a high bacteria count, a swim ban is issued to keep people out of the water until the water quality improves," said Adams.
High amounts of the bacteria can cause short-term health problems that don't require a visit to the doctor. The most common is gastroenteritis, which causes diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain that typically develop one to two days after exposure. Other illnesses include ear, eye, nose and throat infections.
The department's Web page is updated every day at 10 a.m., and daily information about beaches is available from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
©2015 the Lake County News-Sun (Lake County, Ill.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
