Health officials are once again suggesting that weather conditions may have played a part in mixed results from the latest testing of E.coli bacteria levels in Mill Creek MetroPark's Lake Newport.

According to the Mahoning County District Board of Health, the results at the boathouse and boat launch have decreased from last week, but the sampling location at the bridge has slightly increased.

The latest samples were drawn when weather conditions were slightly different than the third week of sampling.

“The bridge location also receives less sun exposure due to overhead vegetative growth.” said Ryan Tekac, Director of Environmental Health for the Mahoning County District Board of Health.

Sunlight tends to kill the bacteria, and rain brings contaminated drainage into the park waterways.

The testing of Lake Newport at three locations is in its fourth week of sampling that began after July 10, when all activities including fishing, boating and kayaking in Lakes Newport, Glacier and Cohasset were suspended when high levels of E. coli were detected in Lake Newport.

With 8 more weeks to continue, Tekac says that data will be examined as more information is collected over the entire 12 weeks.

The Mahoning County District Board of Health will continue to test weekly for the next 8 weeks in order to provide the Mill Creek Metro Parks with data that can be utilized to establish a baseline or trend indicators.

The Mill Creek MetroParks Board of Directors are investigating solutions to the bacteria problem. This past week they began discussions on the possibility of dredging lake Newport.