[Bacteriological study of seawater for recreational use]

A study was conducted at the request of the authorities of the Municipality of Bahía Blanca city, in order to decide whether the sea-water of a swimming pool was suitable for recreational purposes. The characterization of the water was performed through bacteriological indicators and the following groups of bacteria were studied: marine and terrestrial viable aerobic heterotrophic bacteria; total coliforms; Escherichia coli and fluorescent Pseudomonads. Salinity, temperature and pH were registered together with meteorological parameters. In every case, the bacteriological values obtained were lower than those of the most strict international standards used worldwide for bathing waters. In this way, the particular dynamic processing of the water entering the swimming pool from Blanca Bay becomes important, since previous studies conducted on the water of its Principal Channel had yielded high bacteriological values which rendered it unsuitable for bathing. This work shows that in this tidal-flats system, extrapolation of results is not valid. These conditions will remain the same if other factors do not change in the tidal-flats that surround the swimming pool.