Soggy summer renders beaches in short supply

Eastern Iowa beaches, never a regional hallmark, have been rendered even scarcer than usual by the soggy summer of 2010.

The popular beaches on Coralville Lake will remain closed by high water at least through July 28, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and most state park beaches in Eastern Iowa are either closed for repairs or bearing signs warning swimmers of elevated bacteria counts.

Facing another week of hot muggy  July weather, many swimmers and waders will cool off at state park beaches anyway, according to Tom Basten, parks supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources Southeast Iowa District.

“They understand that heavy rains cause spikes in the bacteria counts at beaches and that a day or two of sunlight quickly drops those counts back to normal,” Basten said.

After tests Wednesday (July 14, 2010), warning signs were posted at Backbone park near Dundee, Pleasant Creek near Palo and Lake Macbride near Solon. The beaches at George Wyth State Park in Cedar Falls and Lake Darling near Brighton are closed for long-term repairs.

Backbone park ranger Dave Sunne said usage of the beach there has been above normal this year. “People are using their own judgment. If the water looks clear, they are using it,” he said.

Lake Macbride park manager Ron Puettmann said the beach there has been “extremely busy,” owing at least in part to people who would have normally chosen one of the Coralville Lake beaches.

“We've had to turn people away the last few weekends when the parking lot got full, and it will probably be the same this weekend,” Puettman said.

The beach at Pleasant Creek has had about 500 visitors each Saturday this summer, said park manager Joan Flecksing. While the beach there is always busy on summer weekends, it may be getting some overflow from Coralville Lake beaches, she said.

So is the beach at Johnson County's F.W. Kent Park near Tiffin, one of only two county parks in Iowa with a beach, according to naturalist Brad Friedhof.

The park's 27-acre lake has a small watershed and has not been experiencing high bacteria counts, he said.

The Linn County Conservation Department has no beaches, and its swimming opportunities are largely confined to the Cedar and Wapsipinicon Rivers, both of which have been dangerously high for much of the summer, Deputy Director Dennis Goemaat said.

Eastern Iowa's elevated rivers have also made it difficult for residents to cool off with canoe or float tube trips this year, he said.