The Clark County Environmental Public Health Division collaborates with local parks departments to monitor designated public swim beaches for E. coli and harmful algae blooms. When water tests exceed safety thresholds, the health department notifies their parks partners, who are then responsible for posting advisory warning signs at the affected lakes.
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Clark County Board of Health · Apr 22, 2026 · 23:33–23:39 · Watch on CVTV ↗
Keywords: parks
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22:32 Yeah, some of that depends on when we get the notification because we do have very specific timelines for the labs. So we get a notification if it is at like the end of the week, Thursday, Friday, sometimes we'll do a site visit, but we cannot submit samples to the lab over the weekend. So we'll have to wait until Monday to actually collect a sample for an algae bloom. So the typical process, we collect our samples on Monday, Monday or Tuesday. It goes to the lab that same day for harmful algae. It goes to Seattle King County Environmental Lab so it gets shipped overnight, shows up at the lab Tuesday morning. They are processing it Tuesday, Wednesday. Results typically come to us on Thursday. So Thursday afternoon, we get those notices, and then as soon as we get that, we start whatever advisory process is necessary. So if we are issuing an advisory, we immediately contact the parks partner. We're notifying Marissa Armstrong, our PIO, because she'll put together media releases. So all of that happens in a very short period of time on
23:32 Thursday. And then the ask of our parks partners is that by Friday they get all of the signage posted at the beach. So usually it's all happening within a one-week period. Sometimes it'll be a little bit shorter if the labs are not busy. Sometimes that can kind of extend really late into Friday if the labs are slammed. So if it's the middle of summer, we can extend by about a day. >> Okay, so there could be a week there where there's a hazard. There could be a hazard, but it hasn't been verified or posted. >> Yes. >> So that would be just good for the public to be -- if they see any suspicious algae bloom to, you know -- >> Stay away from it always. Yes. >> Or let you all know. >> Yes. Either notify us. Our messaging is always when in doubt, stay out. So if you see something, it looks unusual. Regardless of what the advisory status is, just don't go in the water. And then we also have signage that's posted year-round at our lakes where we do have issues. So Vancouver Lake, we have
24:31 signage year-round warning people, hey, blooms are common here. Here's what they look like. You should not stay out of the water if you see something. All our contact information is
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direct keyword 23:33–23:39 parks
we are issuing an advisory, we immediately contact the parks partner. We're notifying Marissa Armstrong, our PIO, because she'll put together media releases. So all of that happens in a very short period of time on Thursday. And then the ask of our parks partners is that by Friday they get all of the signage posted at the beach. So usually it's all happening within a one-week period. Sometimes it'll be a little bit shorter if the labs are not busy. Sometimes that can kind of extend really late