SALT LAKE CITY — While some may look to take advantage of recent flooding in Utah to jump in for some fun, health and water quality experts are advising people to stay out of the waterways.
“The water that's coming off is carrying more material, more debris, more bacteria, more pollutants, day-to-day pollutants that accumulate on our roads and come off when storms come through," said John Mackey, director of the Division of Water Quality.
Officials say it's nearly impossible to avoid drinking some of the contaminated water if you're swimming or splashing around in it, meaning people are consuming all sorts of disturbing runoff.
"The things that can contaminate it are human waste, it can be animal waste, it can be a variety of chemicals," said Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Health Environment. "Just about every sort of chemical that's in your home that has the potential to be toxic."
It all can lead to serious health complications.
“People need to not treat floodwaters as a recreation opportunity," said Dr. Moench, "They need to assume that they're contaminated and the health issues of concern include possible gastrointestinal diseases, things like Giardia, E. Coli, Salmonella, and there are other things like skin infections that are possible."
Moench said people should be able to make a splash at some point, but definitely not this spring.
“Hopefully there'll be plenty of opportunity to recreate in water that's suitable in a couple of months," he said, "but right now, floodwaters are not something that, that, that should be treated as a playground."
