The 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement states that “the Waters of the Great Lakes should allow for swimming and other recreational use, unrestricted by environmental quality concerns.”
Assessment highlights
The overall status of Beaches is Good and the 10- year trend is Unchanging. The Beaches indicator shows that most monitored Great Lakes beaches are safe for swimming and recreational use throughout much of the swimming season.
Each year, over 700 beaches along the Great Lakes shoreline are monitored for Escherichia coli (E. coli) as a measure of the risk to human health from fecal material contamination. These data are used to provide information to assess each Great Lake and the Great Lakes as a whole. Sources of E. coli can include overflow from wastewater treatment plants, runoff from the land, improperly working septic systems and large flocks of waterbirds.
The U.S. and Canada use different E. coli thresholds to determine when a beach is unsafe for swimming. Using data from the 2020 to 2023 swimming seasons, the percentage of days that monitored Canadian Great Lakes beaches met Ontario E. coli standards for swimming averaged 89% over this period. The U.S. Great Lakes beaches monitored from 2020 to 2023 were open and safe for swimming 94% of the time over this period. The status of monitored beaches was Good in all the lakes other than Lake Erie. Lake Erie beaches in Canada and the U.S. were open and safe for swimming approximately 83% (within the Canadian criteria for Good) and 80% (within the U.S. criteria for Fair) of the swimming season, respectively, resulting in a Fair to Good assessment.
Monitored Canadian Great Lakes beaches are consistently safe for swimming
Sub-indicator supporting the Beaches assessment
Sub-Indicator | Lake Superior | Lake Michigan | Lake Huron | Lake Erie | Lake Ontario |
Beach Advisories | Good & Unchanging to Improving | Good & Improving | Good & Unchanging to Improving | Fair to Good & Unchanging
| Good & Unchanging |
Status
