LOCKPORT — It appears discharges from the City of Lockport wastewater treatment plant may not to be to blame for the frequent closing of an Olcott beach this summer.

Instead, Niagara County Health Department officials said Thursday that suspicion now points to seagull droppings on old piers flanking the beach as the source of bacteria that caused eight beach closings in less than two months.

Last month, Newfane Supervisor Timothy R. Horanburg, whose town operates the beach, declared, based on Aug. 10 tests right around the sewage treatment facility, that the Lockport plant was to blame for the high bacteria levels.

“I thought it was a lot of speculation. Nothing from the Health Department, just Tim Horanburg making allegations,” Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker said Thursday. “I got a letter [from the Health Department] that kind of absolved us.”

But Horanburg responded, “The seagull poop theory is just laughable. I’m not going to comment more until they do the rest of the tests.”

Results of tests conducted on water in 14 locations between the sewage plant and Krull Park Beach show the levels of E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria drop drastically during the 13-mile flow down Eighteen Mile Creek from Lockport to Olcott.

However, the levels increase again between the mouth of the creek and the beach 1,600 feet to the east on the Lake Ontario shore.

Daniel J. Stapleton, county public health director, said DNA testing on the bacteria in the water is needed to clinch the case.

James J. Devald, county environmental health director, said that while fecal coliform bacteria can be found elsewhere in the environment,

E. coli, which is one type of fecal coliform, comes only from the guts of animals or humans.

If the E. coli comes from humans, the sewage plant is probably to blame. But if it comes from animals, it could be those pesky seagulls.

The 14 samples were taken Aug. 31, a dry day. Ronald Gwozdek, county public health technician, said tests on a rainy day would be preferred for the next round, including DNA.

The state standards for water quality on public beaches decree that a beach must be closed if tests show more than 235 colony forming units, or CFUs, of E. coli in 100 milliliters of water.

A shutdown also is mandated if there are more than 1,000 CFUs of any type of fecal coliform.

The Aug. 31 tests showed 7,200 CFUs of fecal coliform and 6,200 CFUs of E. coli at the Lockport sewer plant’s discharge pipe.

The numbers steadily dropped the farther north the testers went along the creek, except for a small spike right below the Burt Dam.

By the time the water reached the mouth of the creek, the fecal coliform level was 40 and the E. coli level was 20.

But at the beach that day, just 1,600 feet east of the creek mouth, the scores were 210 for fecal coliform and 160 for E. coli.

Why the increase in such a short distance?

The health officials pointed to two concrete federal piers on either side of the mouth, each more than 500 feet long, and two older piers on either side of the beach, each more than 100 feet long.

“Algae and seaweed build up on the piers. They could act as a breeding ground for bacteria,” Gwozdek said. “There’s a large population of birds on the piers.”

As waves wash bird droppings off the concrete into the water, the bacteria levels could increase enough to force beach closures, he said.

via Report may clear Lockport of blame in beach closings – Lockport – The Buffalo News.