DOWNTOWN
Bacteria levels elevated by rain Thursday afternoon forced the Great Ohio River Swim to be rescheduled for Sunday morning.

About 150 swimmers are expected to begin the swim at 7:30 a.m. Sunday across the Ohio from Cincinnati’s Serpentine Wall to Newport and back. The distance is just less than 900 meters.

“Unless it rains – and the chance of rain is zero (Saturday) – we are 100 percent go,” said Jonathan Grinder, race coordinator with Tuscon Racing. “The levels were barely too high.”

The river’s water quality is monitored at three locations in Cincinnati and tested for a bacteria called fecal coliform. Samples were drawn Saturday morning.

The main reason those levels rise is excessive rainfall, which causes overflow from the Metropolitan Sewer District’s combined sewer overflow sewers; they carry both sewage and storm water from the same pipe.

During the dry month of June, the E. coli count per 100 milliliters of water fell as low as four, well below the 240 count that is considered safe. During the rainy early weeks of May the E. coli count exceeded 2,600 on some days.

“We make sure the water levels are safe for the athletes,” Grinder said Saturday.

The first Greater Ohio River Swim, in 2008, had to be postponed because of bacteria levels.

Sunday’s race will be the fifth annual. In 2011, 131 swimmers completed the swim. The winning time was 10:22.

Hundreds more have signed up to swim the river Sunday as part of the Cincinnati Triathlon.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120721/NEWS/307210072/Ohio-River-Swim-postponed-Sunday?odyssey=nav|head