Water sample to decide Crystal Lake cardboard regatta event

America's Cardboard Cup Regatta, an annual charity boat race planned for Saturday in Crystal Lake, is in danger of not happening this year, due to higher than normal E. coli levels that forced officials to close the Lake Park Beach Friday.

Depending on the results of samples taken Friday that are made public at 8 a.m. Saturday, the McHenry County Health Department could reopen the beach immediately, said Joseph Gugle, a health department spokesman.

The health department said Friday that Thursday's water samples showed Lake Park Beach and was well above acceptable levels of E. coli.

Officials close the beaches if they post two consecutive days of 235 or more colony forming units of E. coli per 100 milliliters of water in either the shallow or deep end.

Lake Park Beach posted 1,046 in the shallow end and 1,414 in the deep end, Gugle said.

Lake Park Beach is one of 13 McHenry County beaches officials closed Friday for unacceptable levels of E. coli. The others were:

• Indian Trails and Woods Creek Lake, both in Lake in the Hills

• Morrison Park on Lily Lake

• Dorothy Court on Island Lake

• Wooded Shores, Shoe Hills, Deep Spring Woods 1, Deep Spring Woods 2, Wonder Center, Indian Ridge 1 North, Indian Ridge 2 South and Sunrise Ridge - all in Wonder Lake.

Regatta officials remained positive Friday afternoon, however.

"We're planning to go forward with the event tomorrow," said Nick Kachiroubas, event chairman. "Although the beach is closed now, they've taken samples at noon and are going to come back at 4 p.m. We'll know at 8 a.m. how the new samples look."

Kachiroubas said Friday's sunshine was ideal for killing e-coli conditions.

"We believe the results will come back positive," he said. "We believe this is an event for the community, but we also want to be safe."

You can get the latest information on the test results at www.mcdh./info.