Beach at Kershaw Park closed until further notice

Posted at: 07/18/2012 11:44 AM | Updated at: 07/18/2012 6:35 PM
By: Joangel Concepcion | WHEC.com

A portion of the beach at Canandaigua’s Kershaw Park is closed to swimming until further notice. Officials say it may be due to environmental contamination.

Officials closed down the beach area after finding what appears to be environmental contamination. Officials describe it as a sticky substance that looks like black balls of tar.

The park has had problems with debris in the past. Officials say they have removed several items throughout the years. Thirteen dump trucks full of material was removed from the beach earlier this month.

The city began testing the material on Monday, but it wasn’t until Tuesday, when a child discovered a black tar-like substance on her hands when officials decided to close the beach.

The beach is usually full of families swimming and enjoying the water. One family was extremely disappointed Wednesday after it took them three hours to get to the beach.

Steve Popovich said, “We were disappointed that once we got here the beach was closed after taking the long trip to get here. Now we have to head towards home and hopefully find some other place too cool down other than the water with all this heat today.”

Officials have only closed off the swimming area. The park is still open. Officials will continue to test the water throughout the week. They hope to reopen the beach by the weekend.

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