(IN) The News Dispatch – For years researchers looked at the water of Lake Michigan to find the source of high bacteria readings, but one source of outbreaks of E. coli may be in the beach sand. Bacteria counts tend to be much higher after storms send waves splashing ashore, with water returning to the lake through the sand.

If the sand is aerated and allowed to dry in the hot sun, the bacteria die or diminish.

The Michigan City Parks Department is testing that theory with a new method of beach grooming that puts little furrows into the sand instead of leveling it. That method of beach sand grooming in Racine, Wis., resulted in a 96 percent decline in the number of beach advisories for bacteria. More