Lake Shawnee in Topeka, Kansas recently had a code brown: poop in the lake.  Lakes with swimming areas should have a safe policy in place, but two year lifeguard Gray Botswell was told to go into the water and retrieve the fecal matter with his bare hands.  When he refused, he was asked to go home and not to return. Girlfriend Kristen Whithorn who has been a lifeguard at the lake for four years also walked off the job after she was told that she couldn’t speak to media about her boyfriend’s incident.

It sounds like there was no proper policy in place, so the guys in charge decided that the lifeguards would just have to take care of the problem.  However, removing fecal matter with bare hands isn’t ideal. It’s much better to try to protect the hands somehow or to fish out the poop with a scoop.

The director of parks and recs for Shawnee County, John Knight, says that a new policy is in place for lifeguards at Lake Shawnee if poop is found in the lake again.  The lake water has been tested for E. coli but results have not been released.

Public beaches on the coast are often tested for fecal coliforms and E. coli.  Both are indicator organisms of the presence of harmful bacteria in the water.  If the levels of bacteria are too high, the swimming area may be closed for a period of time.  But the same system does not exist for many lakes with swimming areas.

When swimming in lakes, oceans or rivers, children should not drink the water they are swimming in.  There is the possibility of human fecal matter and also wildlife fecal matter in the water.