The sampling season starts mid-June and continues to the end of August. KFL&A Public Health monitors recreational water quality at sites in this region. Learn more about Gord's connection to water and his growth in the Swim Drink Fish movement by watching our video, featuring Gord's words and live performances by friends including Paul Langlois and Sarah Harmer. The Gord Edgar Downie Pier at Breakwater Park is Canada’s first deep-water urban swimming pier. And provides an example for cities across the Great Lakes. The Gord Edgar Downie Pier proves a swimmable, drinkable, fishable future is possible. Breakwater Park renovations include a new park promenade, steps and seating along the waterfront, landscaping and tree planting, significant accessibility improvements, and a pedestrian bridge for the pier. It unlocked further funding from the City of Kingston and the provincial and federal governments for wider park improvements. The grant was part of the Great Lakes Challenge, a challenge to communities and other funders to do more to restore the lakes. Garfield Weston Foundation donated $500,000 to the Gord Edgar Downie Pier and beach improvements at Breakwater Park. It is the culmination of over 20 years of work by the Swim Drink Fish movement. For decades the city battled water pollution and now the Gord Edgar Downie Pier reclaims Kingston’s waterfront. This swimming pier is a beacon for everyone who cares about swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters. On JSwim Drink Fish unveiled the Gord Edgar Downie Pier at Breakwater Park. Grey means there is no current water quality information, the beach is under construction, there has been an event that has rendered water quality information unreliable or unavailable. Red means the water at the site has water quality issues or there is an emergency. Green means the beach has historically excellent or pristine water quality, but there is no current data. We may manually set the status for a specific beach if we have concerns about the sampling protocol, if there is an emergency, if monitoring practices don't exist or have recently changed, or other reasons that render this site "special." Red means the beach failed water quality tests 40% of the time or more. Yellow means the beach passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time. Green means the beach passed water quality tests 95% of the time or more. This means that rather than displaying current data it displays the beach's average water quality for that year. When swimming season is over or when a beach's water quality data has not been updated frequently enough (weekly) it goes into historical status. Grey means water quality information for the beach is too old (more than 7 days old) to be considered current, or that info is unavailable, or unreliable. Red means the beach’s most recent test results failed to meet water quality standards. Green means the beach’s most recent test results met relevant water quality standards.