E. coli levels safe now for triathlon

Another test planned before Sept. 28 event

By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
    HIGHTSTOWN – Levels of E. coli bacteria in Peddie Lake are “low enough” for swimmers’ safety.
    That was the word this week from the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association a little more than a week before Hightstown’s first Sprint Triathlon.
    Beth April, StreamWatch program coordinator, said the organization sampled Peddie Lake for E. coli for the first time last week and plans to do so again, at an undetermined date, before the Sept. 28 event.
    The level found of 1 colony per 100 milliliters, she said, is below the standard set by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which calls for no higher than a geometric mean of 126 colonies per 100 milliliters or a single sample maximum of 235 colonies.
    Previous monitoring of Peddie Lake, Ms. April said, looked twice a month for nitrates, phosphates, pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen, but not E. coli.
    E. coli finds it way into water when sewer lines and septic systems are not maintained properly or when rain washes pet and animal waste into lakes, rivers and streams, she explained.
    The event, set to begin at 7:30 a.m., will start with a quarter-mile swim in the lake, starting behind the Hightstown branch of the Mercer County Library. Participants will switch to bicycles for a 10-mile trek and then finish things up with a 5K run.
    Proceeds are earmarked for a proposed skateboard park in the borough.
    For more information on the Hightstown Sprint Triathlon, visit hightstown-skatepark.org/
Triathlon.html or contact Darek Hahn at 865-1081 or [email protected].