Christie Lake Conservation Area

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Christie Lake offers a 360-metre sandy beach. The swimming area accommodates 6,000 bathers at a time and serves more than 100,000 bathers over the course of the swimming season. Prior to 2011, as much as 6-tonnes of chlorine were put into the lake each summer in an effort to keep bacteria levels down. The quality of the water without chlorine is very good, and the Conservation Authority believes chlorination is no longer necessary. The Conservation Area is located on the spectacular Niagara Escarpment and also offers 10-kilometres of trails. This man-made reservoir was created in the early 1970's to control flooding. The Christie Reservoir is part of the Spencer Creek watershed, which starts on the Niagara Escarpment and flows into Lake Ontario at Cootes Paradise, Hamilton.

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on August 24th, 2020. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on August 26th, 2020 at 10:33 AM.

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Hamilton Public Health Services monitors recreational water quality at sites in this region. The sampling season starts June 1 and ends August 31. Water samples are collected weekly. Water at all sites is sampled for E. coli and Total coliform at all sites. Hamilton Public Health Services issues beach advisories when the geometric mean concentration of at least five samples is at least 200 E. coli / 100 mL of water or when a single sample is at least 400 E. coli / 100 mL of water. This guideline comes from Canada’s Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality (2012). It is applied to beaches in Ontario in accordance with Ontario’s Recreational Water Protocol, 2018. Prior to 2018 beaches in Ontario were posted when the geometric mean of 5 samples collected within a 30-day period exceeded 100 E. coli / 100 mL of water.

Results are posted to Swim Guide as soon as lab results are available. They are also available at https://www.hamilton.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails-and-beaches/beach-water-quality-in-hamilton.

In Swim Guide, a beach is marked Green when the geometric mean of at least 5 samples is below 200 E.coli / 100 mL water and each individual sample concentration is below 400 E.coli / 100mL.

A beach is marked Red when the results are equal to or above a geometric mean of 200 E.coli / 100 mL water and/or 400 E.coli / 100 mL.

A beach is marked Grey when there are no current results or there is no available information.

The Ministry of the Environment F-5-5 Procedure says that a clean beach is open at least 95% of the swimming season, even if it is near a sewage pipe or combined sewer outfall. This rule applies to every place that is public, accessible, and feels like a good place to swim. When all else fails, the Ontario Environmental Protection Act strongly states that no one can interfere with the use that you can make of a public waterway - like swimming!

DISCLAIMER: Historical data from 2017 and prior reflect the previous Ontario standard of a geometric mean of 100 E. coli /100 mL. Historical data from 2018 onward reflect the new Ontario Operational Approaches for Recreational Water Guideline, 2018: Geometric mean concentration 200 E. coli/ 100 mL and single-sample maximum concentration of 400 E. coli /100 mL.

Water Quality Graph