Rain or shine, investigator Eyob Mazengia from Seattle-King County Public Health was scheduled to sample water off Alki for health testing at midday today, and that he did – three containers, three samples. Out on the beach with him, a team from the state Department of Ecology, getting out the word that this is the start of water-sampling season. The BEACH (Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication, & Health) program – which includes regular testing at Lincoln Park – isn’t new, but the idea of scheduling a multimedia photo op is, according to Sandy Howard, who was out at Alki wrangling camera crews with whom BEACH program manager Julie Lowe was doing interviews. We asked her about the value of testing at beaches where people don’t swim much (like Alki):

The state team says that if they find high levels of bacteria at a beach, they will not only post signs, but also:

*Send a note to an e-mail list you can sign up for (here)
*Tweet, via the Ecology Department account
*Post on Facebook, where the BEACH Program has its own page

… so you can check out any of those channels to make sure the water’s safe!