Editor's note: The original version included errors, which have been removed. There is no correlation between Laurie Hollow and the beaches at the state park.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday afternoon that the water sample taken from Laurie Hollow, located on the west side of the lake’s Osage River Arm north of Highway 5, had E. coli levels in excess of the federal recommended maximum level for public swimming beaches.
The other 49 locations were within normal levels, according to the DNR press release, but the Laurie Hollow cove posted E. coli levels of 378.4 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters of water.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended maximum level for a single sample taken at a beach or designated swimming area is 235 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters of water.
That same cove showed exceedingly high levels of E. coli in July.
About the same time, DNR also closed both public beaches, which added to a growing controversy surrounding the withholding of test results taken in May.
According to the press release, staff from the Southwest Regional Office will begin inspecting facilities in the cove’s watershed Friday to determine if any of them might be contributing to the high E. coli levels there.
The department is also preparing to take additional samples in Laurie Hollow.
The 2009 final results of this year’s round of testing will be available after the October sampling.
Previous results can be found at www.dnr.mo.gov.
