Lake Washington advisory urges people to avoid contact

Rhode Island health and environmental officials issued an advisory Oct. 9 urging people to avoid contact with Lake Washington in Glocester after initial water samples exceeded the state’s advisory threshold. The Department of Environmental Management collected the samples, and the Department of Health’s State Health Laboratories tested them. The notice does not give the measured levels or identify which criterion was exceeded.

The advisory recommends avoiding swimming, fishing, boating and kayaking, and urges caution throughout the lake because blooms can move. It also advises against drinking untreated water or eating fish from affected waters, and says pets should not drink or swim in the lake. Possible effects include skin, eye or nose irritation and gastrointestinal illness; the agencies say more serious effects are less common.

The advisory is guidance, not an announced legal closure, and remains in effect until further notice. The agencies say they will collect additional samples after the bloom clears to help determine whether it can be lifted. DEM generally calls for the bloom to be no longer visible and for two successive representative sampling rounds, at least one week apart, to confirm that both cell counts and toxin levels are below thresholds. These are general criteria, not reported Lake Washington measurements.