Vancouver Community Monitoring Hub
Source Information
Fraser Riverkeeper staff and volunteer citizen scientists monitor recreational water quality in False Creek, year round. They sample water quality weekly during the summer months from May-October and every other week during the winter months from November-April. Fraser Riverkeeper follows the British Columbia Recreational Water Quality Guidelines by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Health Canada’s Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality. The recommended threshold for bathing is a geometric mean of equal to or below 200 E. coli/100mL and a single sample of equal to or below 400 E. coli/100 mL.
Water is currently sampled once every two weeks, on Thursdays, for E.coli and total coliform. Results are available 24 hours after samples are collected on Friday afternoons. 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 results are under 200 E.coli/100 mL and single sample results are below 400 E.coli/100mL.
A beach is marked Red when the geometric mean results are equal to or above 200 E.coli/100 mL water or single sample results are above 400 E.coli/100 mL.
A beach is marked Grey when there are no current results or there is no available information.
The geometric mean is calculated based on the 5 last samples. The single sample is the weekly (or every other week) sample result. Results are posted as soon as lab results are available. Results will be communicated through the swim guide website and apps. You can also see full sample results tables by visiting the fraserriverkeeper.ca website. For further questions contact Swim Drink Fish at 1 (416) 861 1237.