JEFFERSON CITY, MO. (AP) -- UPDATED: July 1 at 11:40 a.m.
Mark Twain State Park Public Beach will be closed this holiday weekend ... again due to high levels of E. coli.
All other areas of the park remain open under normal operating hours.
Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources says on their website, "Samples for state park beaches are taken the first of each week and processed and analyzed at DNR's Environmental Services Program laboratory in Jefferson City. Full beach data will be updated by 1 p.m. Friday, though some closure notifications may be made before that time, as results are available."
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources closes beaches when single samples exceed the EPA recommended maximum of 235 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters of water (235 mpn/100ml) or when the geometric mean -- a rolling average of sample data -- exceeds 126 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters of water (126 mpn/100ml).
Click here for an interactive map of beaches on the DNR website, where you can see all closures.
Just a reminder, the beach at Wakonda State Park near LaGrange, Missouri, is also closed due to recent storm damage.
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UPDATED: June 4
Business owners throughout Mark Twain Lake want to make sure visitors know the main beaches are open this weekend. The one beach that is closed due to E.coli is the State Park Beach.
John F. Spalding Beach and the Indian Creek Beach are open.
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You'll remember last weekend we had the fortune of sharing that local beaches were open for Memorial Day weekend ... well the story has changed.
Missouri officials are closing two swimming beaches at state parks because of high bacteria readings but reopening three others.
The Department of Natural Resources said Thursday the beaches being closed are located at Mark Twain and Harry S. Truman state parks.
Those being reopened are the Hermitage beach at Pomme de Terre and the swimming beaches at Lake of the Ozarks and Cuivre River state parks.
Officials also reported results from a separate testing program at the Lake of the Ozarks. Those tests found high E. coli bacteria in three samples out of more than 40 water samples.
The tests were part of a five-year environmental quality study.
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