The beach this weekend should be safe for swimmers, at Green Valley Lake north of Creston. Earlier this week the water tested too high for fecal bacteria in a routine test, but Green Valley State Park manager Greg Haley says the water samples are taken every Tuesday and Haley says he happens to know when the water was being sampled, it was raining — and that often washes things into the water, which he figures happened this time. Haley says though the Tuesday test showed nearly three times the safe level of the bacteria, visitors today don’t need to worry their health is in danger. The beach will remain open. “It’s a one-time high measurement,” he says and the park manager says he expects it to have no impact on the water quality, since he figures by now the level’s already probably down, as it is after a couple nice days. High readings for the bacteria can be a warning sign for swimmers, and they often go up after rains wash animal waste and other material into waterways.
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