More funding is needed to determine what health risks Bermuda’s sewage practices pose to members of the public, according to Rachel Parsons, laboratory manager for the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences’ (BIOS) Oceanic Microbial Observatory.

However, initial studies, she suggested, indicated swimmers should think twice before diving into popular areas like Paradise Lakes, where houseboats and nearby houses could contribute to a build-up of human bacteria in bays lacking the currents and wind needed to disperse the waste.

While Ms Parsons said she could not comment on the levels of contamination measured within Paradise Lakes, she said the subject “could be very detrimental to tourism.”

“More work needs to be done in order to determine the source of the poor water quality within certain harbours,” Ms Parsons, pressed for a more definitive answer, said.

“As a Bermudian, I don’t go swimming in Mill Creek or Riddell’s Bay. It doesn’t look nice, it’s got a squishy bottom and most people don’t go swimming there.

“They’re a popular harbour for boats because they have a low retention time, they’re in enclosed bays, they’re protected, but as a result they don’t get a lot of flushing, so things do tend to build up. There are some definite hot-spots.”

Studying the effects of sewage and human bacteria, she said, is an extensive process that requires sufficient funding in order to determine the exact health risk and exact sources of contamination.

“In order to say [there’s] a human health risk is hard. You can just suppose and suggest, and say ‘this is a potential human health risk’. You’d need to do a huge epidemiology study and have the hospital on board.”

Furthermore, added Ms Parsons, people who have potentially become sick due to exposure are not likely to go to the hospital, and can be completely unaware they have been infected due to sewage contamination.

“So how the heck do you know whether they got sick because they went swimming somewhere? It’s such a hard thing to do. And then when you use people, they have to sign their life away and a lot of people don’t want to do that.”

Myriad factors make determining the source of human bacteria and the health risk it poses a very difficult process, said Ms Parsons.

“When you talk about sewage, it’s typically a fluid environment. So you could have one beach that has a spike on one day, and then you go back a few days later and it’s low again. So you have to have sustained fecal bacteria at the beach in order to close it.”

While this makes it hard to determine the true effects of sewage outfalls, it is also a benefit. Island nations like Bermuda, said Ms Parsons, are able to discharge their sewage into the open ocean because the environment is dynamic enough to dilute it’s effects.

“It’s hard [to say definitively if the outfall should be extended]. I’ve studied it in the hopes to be able to say: ‘Oh my God, the reefs are really contaminated’, and that’s not the case.

“Even the sediments are so turned up that sometimes I can’t find human fecal markers right near the outfall. It’s so tricky. It depends on so many different factors.

“Other island nations do this, and so the fact that we’re actually going to be having some treatment is a huge thing for us,” said Ms Parsons, referring to Government’s promise to have a sewage treatment plant up and operating at the new hospital before the end of the year.

A “huge survey” would be needed to say definitively what the risks are to public health, said Ms Parsons. The problem, she said, is funding.

“It’s a lot. Government pay me $100 per sample, so it’s a lot of money. The analyses are expensive. I’m using molecular techniques, which are expensive. So everything is costly.”