AUBURN — Swimming will go on this summer at Outlet Beach but the city and watershed group will test the water daily for possible contamination.

City Manager Clinton Deschene said councilors agreed to open the beach July 2, in time for the July 4 holiday. That gives crews from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife time to eject a flock of geese living there.

“They took the geese away a couple of years ago, but they came back,” Deschene said.

Auburn has no public swimming pools and the beach is one of the few public places to swim in the Twin Cities. Swimming is not allowed in Lake Auburn since it is the city’s water supply.

Lake Auburn feeds the pond through a single 25-foot-wide outlet spillway under Route 4. Fresh water follows an 8-foot-deep stream through the pond and runs out through a spillway into Bobbin Mill Brook under Fair Street.

The pond was closed to swimming twice last summer after coliform bacteria was found in the water. The bacteria can cause minor skin and eye infections, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory illness.

A report written over the winter found the enterococci bacteria exceeded federal environmental standards for freshwater recreation areas in 38 out of 120 samples and E.coli bacteria levels that surpassed standards in 29 out of 120 samples. Both are common bacteria in human and animal digestive systems.

It blamed part of the problem on a lack of fresh water and recommended three options, ranging from dredging the pond and rebuilding the beach area to decommissioning the area as a beach and a park.

Deschene said councilors opted to test the pond’s water daily, creating a study at the end of the season to accurately track health trends in the water.

“Then we can really evaluate if we want to spend the money to make it a swimming beach or if we want to make it a park,” Deschene said.

Each report will take up to 24 hours to complete, meaning that the swimmers may be in unclean waters, but Deschene said he thinks that won’t happen.

“We will be testing daily, so we will be able to monitor the water’s condition and see when we have a problem building,” Deschene said. “Then, we can act and stop it before it gets too bad.”

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