Coastal Water Testing:
Is Coral Harbor Safe for Swimming?
The short answer is YES!
CBCC completed coastal water quality testing in Coral Harbor and other locations in 2022 and 2023, and published a report in July of 2024.
Read about our results HERE or read the full report HERE.
Read about how coastal water quality fits into our CBCC Watershed Management Plan.
Coral Bay Community Council (CBCC) hired the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to test water samples taken from Coral Harbor and Johnson Bay in Coral Bay, St. John USVI on October 31st, 2022. Although UVI conducts this kind of testing in several places in Coral Bay quarterly for DPNR’s water quality monitoring program, residents at a July 2022 Coral Bay community meeting expressed concerns that the single test taken quarterly near the Town dock might not be representative of all places people often wade into Coral Harbor or into Johnson Bay or nearby bays.
Folks are concerned about the presence of E. Coli and other harmful bacteria and viruses in our nearshore waters that could prevent safe, recreational activties. The government has detailed testing standards for coastal waters, and we all want to be sure that Coral Bay’s waters are safe for human contact – wading, swimming and boating and fishing.
As a reuslt, CBCC pledged to do more testing to help answer the community’s concerns about the safety and quality of the ocean water, and worked with UVI to undertake special sampling during the regular quarterly sampling.
The good news: the ocean water tested safe!
Sampling was accomplished at 11 locations around Coral Harbor and Johnson Bay: near the Coral Bay Town Dock (normal quarterly sampling spot), and 100 feet from the shoreline in front of places known as Pickles, Flamingo Pond, Lime Out, Harolds Way, Island Blues, Shipwreck, Calabash Market, and 3 locations along Johnson Bay beach. The test date was four days after a 2-inch rainfall event and with only limited or no sargassum seaweed nearby (which can interfere with accurate test results.)
Testing the amount of Enterococci in seawater is the standard scientific measure used by government agencies to judge the presence or absence of harmful bacteria and viruses and thus the safety of water for human contact.
The test results showed the levels of Enterococci were significantly below the maximum considered safe. The EPA and USVI standard is a finding of no more than 70 Enterococci colonies in 100 milliliters of water. All of the 11 samples showed 10 or less than 10 colonies – far below the maximum allowable of 70.
This work is supported under a grant by the Rural Utilities Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are solely the responsibility of the Coral Bay Community Council or the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Rural Utilities Service.