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E. coli concerns at Northland creek falls through cracks

Posted at 5:50 PM, Jul 06, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-06 19:09:54-04

Alexa Thompson recently enjoyed a day with her grandkids, splashing around in Line Creek.

The creek is a seven-mile stretch of water in Platte County, going through Kansas City and Riverside, next to a popular trail. 

"It's just lovely to be down here and let them be kids," she said. 

Later, they poked around online to find out more about a fish they saw.

"My daughter came across, accidentally, a warning that said that you shouldn't wade in the water because of a high level of E. coli and it wasn't safe," Thompson said. "There was no indication at the creek, at the trailhead, or anywhere that that was the case."

The warning is still posted online

 

Screenshot of the City of Riverside's website about a water quality update at Line Creek

 

41 Action News went to the creek, and we didn't see any signs either.

We reached out to the City of Riverside, who said the warning was actually posted on their website two years ago.

It reads in part:

Kansas City Water Services is monitoring the creek to determine possible sources of contamination.  As sources are identified, the appropriate repairs or mitigation activities will be designed and implemented. Kansas City and Riverside staff are working together to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.

But no update was ever posted.

"In two years there's nothing to remediate the problem? But there still aren't signs? It's either safe or it's not safe, but if it isn't there should be signs all over the place," Thompson said.

Mike Duffy, Riverside's Director of Community Development, said the situation honestly fell through the cracks.

"It was another group that was doing some water quality monitoring. Our thought was that at some point in the future if there were changes, they would let us know about those. We had not heard from them so we really didn't think to go back and check the webpage or do our own types of counts," Duffy said.

Now he assures us that they're working to get updated water samples and information online.

Kansas City Water Services had not gotten back with 41 Action News before airtime Thursday afternoon.

According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resource's report on Line Creek two years ago, submerging your whole body in the creek is prohibited.

"We wanted to err on the side of caution a little bit and we put no swimming or wading. Probably in hindsight we should've just put please do not swim in the creek," Duffy said.

Duffy says walking through the water, fishing, and boating is still safe.

The city expects to get water samples back before the weekend.

"I feel like my threshold is high for little boys playing in the woods and creeks, but E. coli is nothing to mess around with," Thompson said.