a new study has re-ignited a long standing controversy into the role agriculture plays in polluting Lake Huron beaches.

The study, funded by provincial and federal governments and conducted by researchers at the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in 2005 and 2006, found livestock and poultry manure accounts for roughly two thirds of E. coli measured in the rural watershed of Eighteen Mile River.

While manure was the top source of  E. coli found in the study, an "environmentally adapted" strain also turned up on the shoreline.

on average, about 60.2 per cent of E. coli came from agriculture, 9.9 per cent from wildlife, about 2.5 per cent from humans, 17.5 per cent from the adapted strain and about 9.7 per cent from unknown sources.

Fitzgibbon isn't surprised there is more bacteria there from livestock than from human sewage because of the low population. In fact, he's surprised there was human-source bacteria at all.