‘Who pooped in the Hot Springs?’: Arizona Hot Springs on high alert for fecal bacteria
National Park Service rangers are keeping a closer eye on one of its hot springs after testing showed high levels of bacteria that are sure to deter swimmers — fecal bacteria. And this isn’t the first time.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, the park service said it would increase monitoring at Arizona Hot Springs, a popular water body inside the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, because of increased levels of fecal coliform bacteria, E. coli and enterococci bacteria, which all are widely used as indicators of fecal matter.
Officials say that’s largely because of sandbags that restrict the flow of water to make it deeper to swim in — something that led to the closure of the same area for about a week last year in November.
“We’re trying to work to alleviate and flush that out right now,” Lake Mead Superintendent Mike Gauthier said in a public meeting Thursday afternoon. “It’s just a warning, but we’re going to do our best to keep the public informed.”
The trails that lead to Arizona Hot Springs are generally closed when temperatures get too hot from May 15 to Sept. 30.
It’s unclear how high bacteria levels are right now, but restricting access to the area early could become necessary if bacteria levels continue to rise.
Who pooped in the Hot Springs?
In January, park service chief of resource management and interpretation Mark Sappington told the public that free flow of water is the most important factor in making sure bacteria levels stay low.
Testing has shown that the fecal matter is coming from humans, Sappington said in front of a slide that read “Who pooped in the Hot Springs?” with clip art of species posing for mug shots.
“With all the usual suspects there, unfortunately, it was people who were the guilty party,” Sappington said. “All that bacteria was unfortunately coming from all of the folks who were impounding the hot springs and then soaking.”
Crews are currently working on restoring the flow of water by removing sandbags, which will likely flush out the bacteria that have raised concerns.
Contact Alan at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
