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‘Alarming’ bacteria levels found in Seine River, where Olympians will swim
(www.washingtonpost.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A nonprofit focused on waterway conservation has voiced concern about contamination in Paris’s Seine River ahead of open-water swimming events to be held there at the Olympic and Paralympic Games starting in July.
But Ile-de-France precinct officials dismissed the Surfrider tests on Monday, saying the water would be swimmable for the Summer Games after key elements of a $1.5 billion plan to clean up the river are rolled out in April and May.
And the city’s deputy mayor for sports and the Olympics and Paralympics, Pierre Rabadan, said in an interview Tuesday in Paris that the findings ignore a steady improvement in water quality over recent years.
In an open letter, Surfrider said it had growing concerns about the risks to Olympic athletes if the water is still contaminated by July, calling its test results “alarming.”
But in a news release Monday, the Ile-de-France precinct said key structural works in its cleanup plan were yet to be put into place, including the massive new Austerlitz storm water storage basin.
Rabadan added that there is no alternative venue for the Olympic and Paralympic swimming events that are expected to be held in the Seine, but that organizers may postpone some competitions by several days if the water quality is insufficient.
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