The search is on for a world-class beach in Niagara.

Although the peninsula features more than 50 stretches of sand on two Great Lakes, not one boasts the international recognition for beach quality that comes with a Blue Flag designation. The award is bestowed annually on beaches around the world that meet strict standards for water quality, user safety and eco-friendliness — a sort of five-star rating for your sandy strand.

Popular in Europe for two decades, the rating system is relatively new to Canadian shorelines. Only 15 beaches in Canada make the list of spectacular swims, including Toronto swimming holes like Woodbine and Centre Island and Lake Erie’s sole representative, Port Stanley.

Niagara isn’t on the list — yet.

“Your area has some fabulous beaches,” said Sarah Winterton, the outreach director at Environmental Defence which co-ordinates the Blue Flag program in Canada. “There are certainly a few examples that could be worth chatting about (for a designation.)”

At the invitation of regional government, Environmental Defence has been scoping out local beaches as part of a “pre-qualification assessment” for possible Blue Flag candidates.

Eventually, regional planners would love to see at least one local beach on each Great Lake earn the coveted world-class status, said Ilze Andzans, program manager for the Niagara Water Strategy.

But it’s a long process, she warned, and neither Niagara Region nor any local municipality has made an official application for consideration yet.

One of the biggest hurdles, especially in Niagara, is the tough standards required for water quality under the program: qualifying beaches must be posted safe for swimming at least 80% of the time.

“For many of our beaches, we have more work to do to hit that mark,” Andzans said.

Popular Lakeside Beach in Port Dalhousie, for example, has hovered just above or just below the 80% safe-for-swimming level consistently for the past three years.

Andzans said one of the goals of Niagara’s water strategy is to cut down on the number of summer days when local beaches are posted as unsafe due to high bacteria levels.

Cities like St. Catharines have made some in-roads on beach water quality by spending millions on large tanks to trap sewage overflows during storms.

But Niagara has also recently partnered with Environment Canada and McMaster University to study potential beach contamination from bird and animal poop, Andzans said. That effort will require public health officials to take 70 water samples twice a week from 15 Niagara beaches, including popular summer hangouts like Lakeside Beach, Nickel Beach and Crystal Beach.

The study will take two years to finish, but Andzans said regional residents can expect to see a beach report update this fall outlining “potential issues and solutions” at various swimming holes. The report will also point to potential Blue Flag candidates — a list of hopefuls Andzans wouldn’t reveal yet.

It takes more than clean water to plant a blue flag, however.

The caretakers of candidate beaches have to meet 27 criteria covering water quality, safety, services, environmental management and education.

“We’re talking about adequate facilities, garbage collection, beach grooming — it goes well beyond water quality concerns,” Andzans said.

Individual beach owners — in most cases, municipal governments — must apply for Blue Flag status before Environmental Defence will officially assess a beach, Winterton said.

It’s not a decision to take lightly, she noted, since beaches are reassessed each year and municipalities can lose Blue Flag status if standards fall.

“It requires an ongoing community commitment,” she said. “Residents have to embrace the idea.”

Winterton expects the popularity of the eco-status symbol to grow.

“In Europe, it’s considered to be one of most well-recognized eco-tourism labels, period,” she said. “As the program becomes more well-known here, having that flag is going to have an impact for communities in terms of drawing tourists because more and more people want to have some reassurance that the environment is being considered in tourism activities and facilities.”

via Does Niagara have a world-class beach? – Niagara Falls Review – Ontario, CA.