Need a Source? Find the best Ontario beaches for this long weekend

Which beaches should you swim at this Victoria Day long weekend? Lake Ontario Waterkeeper can tell you, with its newly updated, free Swim Guide app.

The Waterkeeper Swim Guide app and Swim Guide website www.theswimguide.org shows the closest public beaches and provides up-to-the minute information on which ones are the best for swimming, this weekend and all through the summer. Most beaches are not sampled until June, but Swim Guide’s archive helps you identify the best and worst options in Ontario quickly and easily. During the summer season, water quality information is updated daily, based on data from government agencies.

Talk to Waterkeeper President and Vice President

Talk to Mark Mattson, President of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Krystyn Tully, Vice President, about protecting Lake Ontario’s waterways and which water is cleanest for swimming and to drink. Mark and Krystyn built the Waterkeeper Swim Guide, now used in hundreds of communities across Canada and the United States.

In addition to the new Swim Guide app, there’s also a new Waterkeeper Drink Guide, which alerts users when there are drinking water advisories. These advisories fall into four categories: Boil Water, Blue-Green Algae, Water Shortage and Do Not Consume. They are updated daily by The Water Chronicles, based on information from official government sources.

Mark Mattson and Krystyn Tully are available for interview:

416-861-1237

About Lake Ontario Waterkeeper

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is a grassroots, non-profit charity dedicated to creating a swimmable, drinkable, fishable Lake Ontario. It was started after contaminated drinking water caused seven deaths in Walkerton, Ontario in 2000. Waterkeeper’s goal is for communities where it is safe to touch the water, where the water is pure enough for drinking, and where it is clean and wild enough to toss in a line and pull out a fish for your family. The organization educates the public about the Great Lakes, connects people to the water through initiatives like Swim Guide, participates in decision making and conducts research in science, law, policy and culture. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is a member of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s internationally-recognized Waterkeeper Alliance. To learn more about Waterkeeper, visit www.waterkeeper.ca or Facebook. Follow us on Twitter (@LOWaterkeeper).

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For further information: Allie Kosela, allie [at] waterkeeper.ca, 416.861.1237