The water quality in the Seine River has been an issue of concern for both the triathletes and the open water swimmers. The best case scenario was a few weeks without rain, allowing the water quality levels to improve without any sewage getting into the river.
Earlier this month World Triathlon released water testing stats from June 24 to July 2 that indicated the water quality was improving.
“In spite of a rather significant water flow, the Seine water quality has improved over the period, and the results are consistent with the thresholds as determined by the European directive over six days (from 24 to 29 June, 1 and 2 July for almost all sampling sites),” World Triathlon reported. “This positive evolution is due to the return of sunshine and warmer temperatures, and to the works carried out as part of the Seine Water Quality Improvement Plan.”
Rain complicating conditions with the Seine
Unfortunately, while it’s stayed warm, the sunshine disappeared over the weekend. Organizers got the exact opposite of what they’d hoped for in the days leading up to the triathlon event – the rain started pouring down during the opening ceremonies on Friday night, and only got worse on Saturday. (The rainy conditions led to a number of crashes during the cycling time trial events on Saturday, with Olympic triathlete Taylor Knibb going down four times during the race.)
Even though millions of Euro have been invested on five different projects designed to increase the capacity of the sewage network that would reduce amount of pollution going into the river and make the water safe for swimming, there are obviously still issues with the Seine. The heavy rains appear to have led to high E. coli levels in the river, which forced the cancellation of yesterday’s practice swim. Today’s practice swim was also cancelled, although organizers are confident that things should clean up over the next few days.
Decision to be made Tuesday morning
“Given the weather forecast for the next 36 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start of the triathlon competitions on 30 July,” World Triathlon and Paris 2024 said in a statement yesterday. “As observed in July, with summer conditions (more sunshine, higher temperatures, prolonged absence of rain) water quality in the Seine has improved significantly.”
The water will be tested at 3:30 am on Tuesday morning, four and a half hours before the…
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