Cape Coral City Manager John Szerlag has reopened the Yacht Club beach after the latest testing results from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection showed no toxins in the water. FDEP sampled the waters at the Yacht Club on Monday and posted the results on their website this morning.

“Based on these results, we are reopening the Yacht Club beach for swimming,” Szerlag said in a prepared statement. “That said, I will continue to push for continuity between FDEP and our county health departments relative to when swimming advisories should be issued for public beaches.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, Szerlag closed the beach to swimming on Sunday, July 17 after a low level of toxins were detected by FDEP earlier in the month,” the release states.

A test administered by the FDEP on July 7 detected 1 microgram per liter of microcystin, a toxin produced by blue-green algae. According to the World Health Organization, levels under 10 micrograms per liter are considered low risk to human health.

As a part of its on-going testing program implemented in the wake of serious algae blooms on the east coast, the FDEP took four samples from different locations on July 18, including the Cape Coral Yacht Club beach off Driftwood Parkway.

“All sample results were below the World Health Organization’s recreational exposure limit, including the Cape Coral Yacht Club, which was non-detect for toxins,” the latest DEP South Florida Algal Bloom Monitoring and Response Report posted to the agency’s website states.

The agency has begun to use on-site microcystin testing kits to allow for immediate, preliminary test results.

“Results from the kits are then sent to the Florida Department of Health (DOH) for consideration of precautionary advisories while official results are processed,” the agency’s Latest Actions report states.

The Department of Health is the agency that routinely monitors water quality for and issues both beach advisories, including no swimming advisories, which are typically used for beach closures by local governing bodies. The most common cause locally is high levels of coliform bacteria.