Check for possible health warnings before heading to the beach

As the weather begins to warm up, you may want to spend some time cooling off at local beaches. But King County says you should probably check for health notifications before getting in the water.

Every week, from mid-May to mid-September the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks tests the water at more than two dozen popular lake swimming beaches.

Beth leDoux , the environmental programs managing supervisor for King County, said they do weekly testing to look for E. coli.

“Those are the bacteria we're looking at because those are the ones that would be problematic and could cause... your stomach to be upset if you ingest the water," leDoux said.

Over the weekend two Seattle-area beaches closed due to high levels of fecal bacteria, Kirkland’s Juanita Beach and Seattle’s Lincoln Park Beach.

leDoux oversees the bacteria levels at freshwater beaches. Freshwater beaches include Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish.

Saltwater beaches on Puget Sound are overseen by the Department of Ecology and public health.

leDoux said the high bacteria levels in popular swim beaches could be due to a concentration of animal poop and even leaky baby diapers.

“E. coli is poop," she explained. "Poop from humans, poop from dogs. [Anything] that poops carry some level of E. coli. And what we're looking for is making sure that E. coli level doesn't get too high.”

leDoux said this is why scooping dog poop is so important, because that waste can get into our water and cause concentration levels of E. coli to go up.

Those who are immunocompromised should stay out of the water when bacteria levels are unsafe.

leDoux also said bacteria levels can fluctuate quite a bit. One week it may be high, and the next week it could drop.

So, if your favorite local beach is closed, leDoux said to check the county’s beach bacteria map, because there’s probably a good chance there’s another local beach open, that's safe for you and your loved ones to cool off in.