Green means the beach’s most recent test results met relevant water quality standards. | |
Red means the beach’s most recent test results failed to meet water quality standards. | |
Grey means water quality information for the beach is too old (more than 7 days old) to be considered current, or that info is unavailable, or unreliable. |
When swimming season is over or when a beach's water quality data has not been updated frequently enough (weekly) it goes into historical status. This means that rather than displaying current data it displays the beach's average water quality for that year.
Green means the beach passed water quality tests 95% of the time or more. | |
Yellow means the beach passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time. | |
Red means the beach failed water quality tests 40% of the time or more. |
We may manually set the status for a specific beach if we have concerns about the sampling protocol, if there is an emergency, if monitoring practices don't exist or have recently changed, or other reasons that render this site "special."
This means that this site has been issued a Blue Flag status for the current swimming season. This status does not indicate current water quality. | |
Red means the water at the site has water quality issues or there is an emergency. | |
Grey means there is no current water quality information, the beach is under construction, there has been an event that has rendered water quality information unreliable or unavailable. |
See the beach description for more information regarding their special status. |
The King County Lake Beach Monitoring Program protects public health by providing timely and accessible information on water quality (bacteria and algal toxins) at selected public swimming beaches. We often help beach managers identify and test ways to reduce pollution by improving management practices. In addition, we regularly monitor some streams that impact nearby swimming beaches, and work with stormwater managers to locate specific sources of bacteria pollution.
The Lake Beach Monitoring Program began in 1996, and grew out of King County’s existing monitoring program on Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. Regular monitoring of these large lakes began in 1981. But King County’s water-quality monitoring arguably traces back to 1958, when voters approved the formation of The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro). Metro’s initial goal was to develop a regional wastewater treatment system to reduce sewage pollution of our lakes and Puget Sound.
Email: lakes@kingcounty.gov
Address: 201 South Jackson, Seattle, WA 98104
Instagram: @kcenvirolab
Facebook: facebook.com/KCWLRD
Twitter: @KCDNRP
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