The beach at Backbone State Park in Delaware County is open again, but there’s still a warning posted for swimmers due to high bacteria levels. The beach had been closed since April after it was learned that the sewage treatment plant in Strawberry Point was bypassing sewage into a creek that feeds the Maquoketa River and the lake. After two months of monitoring, the D-N-R has concluded that the wastewater has had little impact on the bacteria levels at the lake. The D-N-R will continue monitoring the tributaries of the Maquoketa River to try to identify other sources of bacteria.
