The ongoing issue of poor water quality along the Northumberland Strait was the topic of a symposium at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., on Monday. Students say they have come to the conclusion that there are holes in the way water data is collected at popular summer destinations.

The finding was revealed after a month-long extensive study, with students collecting data and accessing historical records dating back to the 1940s.

Concerns over contamination at Parlee Beach and Murray Corner have worried beachgoers since last summer, where water quality was often rated poor.

“There's a pattern of some good years, some bad years, but recurrent problems at Parlee Beach,” says microbiology professor Doug Campbell.

While the study found there were high levels at Parlee Beach, other beaches, like Kouchibouguac and Aboiteau Beach, are in very good condition.

“It's not a distributed problem along the Northumberland Strait, it’s patches of problems,” says Campbell. “I think we should focus our attention on where we see high counts.”

According to current Health Canada guidelines, the cutoff for good water quality is 75 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water.

Some of the water the students collected had much higher results.

“Anything over 75, you would not want to necessarily swimming in that water. So by the time you get up to 3,500 colony forming units per 100 milliliters, we're talking about a very, very serious contamination,” says biology student Ashley McKibbon.

Students say more work is needed before causes are pinpointed, but they believe rainfall, farm water runoff, and human sources are contributing factors to the poor water quality.

“Everyone in the summer wants to go for a swim, but they may not actually understand the implications of what numbers mean in terms of things, like water quality thresholds,” says biochemistry student Jessica Grant.

While the students may not present any solutions to the water issue, they say they hope the study will set a precedent on how data is collected in the future.

The provincial government has promised to update water quality testing and its rating system in a few months.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Cami Kepke