Toronto Outer Harbour - Bay

Toronto's Outer Harbour boasts a unique view of the Toronto Skyline, and is home to many recreational water clubs, such as: Toronto Windsurfing Club, Water Rats Sailing Club, Mooredale Sailing Club, St. James Town Sailing Club, Outer Harbour Centreboard Club, Hanlan's Boat Club, Westwood Sailing Club, and Toronto Multihull Cruising Club.

The waters of Lake Ontario in Outer Bay of Cherry Beach are tested, as this is the location of many sailing, rowing, and kitesurfing races. Daily from the month of May to the end of October you will see many sail boats, kite surfers, wind surfers, and rowing boats out on this part of Lake Ontario.

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Water Quality

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Special Status
This means the affiliate organization managing a beach has set the beach status based on special local knowledge or information. Check the beach description and the Sources section for details.

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

For the 2018 summer, a small group of citizen-scientists initiated a community sampling program in collaboration with Swim Drink Fish Canada. This is part of the Toronto Community Monitoring Program supporting recreational water communities in their efforts to obtain accurate and up-to-date water quality information in areas with no official monitoring. Trained community members monitor recreational water quality at one location in the Humber Bay Park West during the summer months. The guidelines followed are Ontario’s Provincial Water Quality Objectives from 2014, set by the Ministry of Environment at 100 E.coli per 100 millilitres of water.

Water is sampled for E. coli and Total coliform at all sites. Sampling occurs once a week on Tuesday morning from June 25th to September 30th, 2018. Results are available 24 hours after samples are collected, on Wednesday afternoons.

Beaches are posted when the geometric mean of 5 samples collected within a given swimming area and within a 30-day period exceeds 100 E.coli / 100 ml of water. A The Ministry of the Environment F-5-5 procedure says that a clean beach meets water quality criteria at least 95% of the swimming season, even if it is near a sewage pipe or combined sewer outfall.

Test results are expressed as Most Probable Number (MPN) of E.coli per 100 ml by using the IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000 MPN Table.

A beach is marked Green when geometric mean of 5 samples results are equal or below 100 E.coli / 100 ML water.

A beach is marked Red when the geometric mean concentration (minimum of five samples) is equal to or above 100 E.coli / 100 ML water, according to Ontario’s water quality guidelines.

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

Results are posted as soon as lab results are available. Results will be communicated through the swim guide website and apps.

To see a full sample results tables visit the Waterkeeper.ca website. Results are also available by email at elise@swimdrinkfish.ca or by calling The Swim Guide +1 (416) 861-1237.

Water Quality Graph