Winyah Rivers Swim Guide Program
Winyah Rivers Alliance believes everyone has the right to fishable, swimmable, drinkable water. During the summer season, we want you to know whether your favorite river landings are swimmable. We have partnered with Swim Guide to provide current recreational water quality information so you can enjoy the rivers safely all summer long.
Each week, your Riverkeepers collect and analyze samples for E. coli bacteria. We then share the results in our Swim Guide Report on Fridays throughout the summer. We are sampling 14 sites on the Waccamaw, 8 sites on the Lumber, 2 on the Black, and 2 on the Sampit. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter or follow Winyah Rivers Alliance on Facebook and Instagram to get your weekly Swim Guide Report!
Learn more!
All About Swim Guide
Why E. coli bacteria?
Where is Winyah Rivers Sampling?
Where can I find results?
All About Swim Guide
Swim Guide is Yelp for swimming! If you’re looking for a safe place to swim, Swim Guide is your one-stop shop for recreational water quality. Using an easy-to-understand color code system, Swim Guide gives you the information you need to decide where to swim.
Visit the Swim Guide website or download the Swim Guide app to check the health of your favorite river landing!
Why E. coli bacteria?
E. coli is a fecal coliform bacteria present in our waterways from a variety of sources. Warm blooded animals (and even some cold blooded animals like alligators) have E. coli bacteria in their guts and eliminate the bacteria through defecation. That’s right, we are talking about poop! While E. coli may not make us sick, it can indicate that there are human-sourced pathogens in our waterways that can make us sick. The US Environmental Protection Agency uses E. coli as an indicator species to approximate the level of risk for someone recreating in contaminated water.
Using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended threshold value of an E. coli concentration of 235 CFU/100mL, we evaluate whether our samples passed or failed the water quality standard. Passing the standard means swimmable water for you!
Where is Winyah Rivers sampling?
Winyah Rivers Swim Guide Program covers four subwatersheds in the greater Winyah Bay watershed. Your Riverkeepers are sampling recreational sites including boat landings and swimming holes where recreators come into direct contact with our rivers.
Your Waccamaw RIVERKEEPERⓇ is sampling 14 sites in the Waccamaw River watershed including 3 sites at Lake Waccamaw and 11 sites along the mainstem of the river. Your Lumber RIVERKEEPERⓇ is sampling 8 sites throughout the Lumber River watershed. Your Black-Sampit RIVERKEEPERⓇ is sampling 2 sites in the Black River watershed and 2 sites in the Sampit River watershed. Together, we are sampling 26 sites throughout the watershed.
You can view our sampling sites in the map below. Click on your favorite site for a link to the Swim Guide page with current results.
Where can I find results?
Visit the Swim Guide website and find your favorite site!
Follow Winyah Rivers on Facebook and check results every Friday!
Follow Winyah Rivers on Instagram and check results every Friday!
Sign up for our newsletters (scroll to the bottom of page and enter your information) and get the Swim Guide Report in your email inbox every Friday!
You can also contact your Riverkeepers with any questions you have about the Winyah Rivers Swim Guide Program.
