For Lynn, June was a nightmare.
Her family had been coming to Lake Anna for eight years, so it wasn’t unusual for them to spend Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend there on their boat with their friends.
The weather was great, and the water was warm.
But then, within days, both of her young kids were hospitalized with severe E. coli infections.
They were in horrible pain. They would go to the bathroom and “just sit on the toilet sobbing in tears because they hurt so badly,” said Lynn, who lives in Harrisonburg. She chose to be identified by her middle name to protect the privacy of her children.
Within days, her son’s kidneys started to fail and he developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a rare and serious disease that affects the kidneys and blood clotting system. He was put on dialysis and blood transfusions.
He wasn’t the only one.
At least 25 people were infected with E. coli at Lake Anna during the Memorial Day weekend. According to the Virginia Department of Health, most of the cases were children under 18. Seven, like Lynn’s son, developed HUS as a result of the infection. Fortunately, no one has died.
“If there is anything we can do to prevent this from happening to other kids, that’s what we want to do,” said Lynn.
That might not be so easy.
State health officials say they will never know how the E. coli made it to the lake that weekend.
“No matter how many times we test it now, we are never going to get that same moment that was happening in the water on Memorial Day weekend,” Brookie Crawford, Risk Communications Manager at the Virginia Department of Health, told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Escherichia coli or E. coli, normally lives in the intestines of humans and animals and it can contaminate water when wild or domestic animals defecate in or near the water. It can also leak out of faulty septic tanks or carelessly tossed diapers, spread from a sick swimmer or a dog splashing in the water.
The Lake Anna outbreak could have been a freak accident.
But, considering that there are dozens of beaches closed nationwide this summer due to high E. coli concentration in the water, there are reasons to be more cautious and thoughtful before entering the natural waters.
It might get worse, too. Experts have been warning for years that climate change will boost the rate of waterborne diseases like E. coli. The warming weather will create an environment that enables bacteria to thrive in bodies of water. That could mean more severe outbreaks like Lake Anna’s in the future.
“All lakes are getting warmer. And ergo, warmer water tends to be a better environment for things like E. coli,” said Michael Pace, a professor with the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences.
E. coli is not meant to live in open water. If the bacteria makes it into the water, it doesn’t survive long — a few days, maybe a week, he said.
“But if it’s warmer, they can survive longer,” Pace said. “So obviously, climate change would facilitate that.”
While Lake Anna’s outbreak stands out because there was no warning and people got sick, it is far from the only recreational body of water that has been exposed to high levels of E. coli this summer. Just in the past few weeks, there were several cases of unsafe levels of the bacteria in lakes and rivers nationwide: Lake Kohlmier in Owatonna, Minnesota, was closed because it tested high for E. coli. Michigan closed more than a dozen beaches for the same reason. Lake Mansfield in Massachusetts was also closed, suspecting geese droppings as a source of E. coli, and 12 beaches in Iowa were not recommended for swimming.
Across the ocean, Belgium’s Olympic team skipped Monday’s triathlon competition because one of their teammates got an E. coli infection after swimming in the Seine River in Paris. The river has been a subject of the French push to improve the water quality leading to the Olympics, but fell short in the end due to heavy rains.
These are just a few examples.
While it’s unclear whether this number of E. coli flare ups is unusual just yet, there are plenty of studies saying that the future will be hotter and will have more unpredictable heavy rains, both of which can contribute to more outbreaks.
All lakes are getting warmer. And ergo, warmer water tends to be a better environment for things like E. coli.
—Michael Pace, a professor with the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences
According to a federal government’s national climate assessment report that came out last year, climate change is going to increase temperatures year-round in Virginia. Summers will become hotter and more humid.
It will increase heat stress on livestock, which in turn could drive more domestic and wild animals to cool off in the water.
At the same time, the predicted increase in strong rains and floods can create more runoff, bringing more animal feces into the water — which can mean more E. coli.
“Every time it rains, E. coli concentrations go up,” said Pace.
This all means that government agencies and lakeside communities face an uphill battle in confronting future outbreaks. But, they’re not completely defenseless. There are things that can reduce the risk.
Keep the cattle out of the water
Lake Anna shares shores with farms and wild animals, populated suburbs and popular recreational spots like the sandbar, where most of the people diagnosed with E. coli spent some time on the Memorial Day weekend. It also rained right before that holiday.
The E. coli could have come from any of those areas. But one of the sources that the Lake Anna Civic Association has their attention on is the farms.
“A lot of times you drive by these cows in the water, and they’re just sitting there with their head down. They’re just cooling down,” said Harry Looney, Water Quality Committee co-chair at volunteer-run Lake Anna Civic Association (LACA) and a citizen representative at the Lake Anna Advisory Committee, a joint administrative organization. Both organizations focus on the safety and quality of Lake Anna’s water.
While there is no evidence that cattle caused this E. coli outbreak, it’s clear they can. Thus, keeping cattle out of the water is one of the more obvious ways that future outbreaks could be minimized if not prevented, climate and health experts told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
A lot of times you drive by these cows in the water, and they’re just sitting there with their head down. They’re just cooling down.
—Harry Looney, Water Quality Committee co-chair at volunteer-run Lake Anna Civic Association
“E. Coli in particular is one of those things we can do a good job controlling by reducing inputs and the risks of a really nasty outbreak,” said UVA’s Pace.
Right now, there are efforts underway to do just that — though the folks involved disagree on how effective those efforts are. Fencing cattle from the waterways is not a legal requirement in Virginia, and many farms allow their animals free access.
“It’s hard to convince a farmer, that’s probably a third or fourth or fifth generation farmer on the property, that he or she should fence their cows,” said Looney. “The cows have been in the water since farmers have been there. And the farm has been there for a hundred years.”
But that’s not the case everywhere.
In recent years, the government has been offering incentives for farmers to start fencing their cattle out of the water as a part of the national push for better water sanitation.
For the 2025 fiscal year, Virginia has increased its allocated budget for soil and water conservation to nearly $207 million — an $82.1 million increase since 2024’s previous record of $124.6 million. This means there is more money farmers can tap into to build fences separating their cattle from natural water and create alternatives — like digging a well.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has funding to invest in farm conservation practices. There are private and non-profit organizations helping farmers as well.
According to James Martin, director of the Division of Soil and Water Conservation at Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, many farmers in the state took advantage of the cost-sharing program in the past years.
“There are a lot of producers that have participated in the program, either state or federal, in the past. And over the last year we’ve made huge strides in excluding livestock from waters. But there are still some holdouts,” said Martin.
The division does not have great data on the percentage of all Virginia’s streams that are fully-excluded from livestock, Martin said. But he believes that many farmers realize that the best-practices the department is helping to fund don’t just benefit the public waterways — but farmers themselves. Cattle can also get sick from contaminated water, driving up their veterinarian bills.
Take Action
The 2025 Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program (VACS) program sign-up and applications started on July 1 and are available for farmers who want to take advantage of the cost-sharing programs.
Charlottesville Tomorrow tried calling and emailing local farmers around Lake Anna to ask them about their practices with letting cattle in the water, but got no response.
Test the water, and then test it again
While these efforts could reduce the risk of E. coli outbreaks, there’s no way to prevent them entirely. There is always going to be fecal matter in the water and it’s usually not a problem, as long as it stays under the level of concern, the experts who spoke with Charlottesville Tomorrow say. That’s where the second preventative measure comes in: Testing.
Across the country, agencies and private organizations are investing in regular water quality testing, in an effort to warn would-be lake goers about possible dangerous water before they go.
Lake Anna already has an impressive system of monitoring water quality, run with help of civilian volunteers from LACA, like Harry Looney.
“The notable thing about Lake Anna is that it has a very committed civic association. They’re well organized, and they’re trying to tackle this problem head on,” said Paul Bukaveckas, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who has been studying the increasing water temperature of Lake Anna.
The presence of this civic groups means Lake Anna is better monitored than many, he added. Many other lakes might not have a lake association at all or it might not be as active as LACA, he explained, which means that complaining about the quality of water never goes anywhere.
“Whereas with Lake Anna, you have people like Harry, a volunteer who devoted a tremendous amount of time to monitoring water quality in the lake,” Bukaveckas said.
LACA has about 70 volunteers involved in routine water sampling, which is either shared with outside laboratories like the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality or analyzed in Looney’s home laboratory, which he built himself and equipped especially for this. They share the results of their testing with VDEQ and the public.
But while routine testing can catch spikes — it’s also limited.
“You could test every day and get different results,” said Crawford, with the Virginia Department of Health. “Because if I test today, and it rains tomorrow, and then people go swimming the next day, they’re going to not see the same water that I tested on today.”
In their April sampling, the results showed a slightly higher level of E. coli at the upper lake stations, which is typical for spring. According to Looney, this occurs because the spring rains wash livestock manure that accumulated in the fields over the winter into the lake. Even then, the results stayed at 10 or below 10 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water, which is far below the standard of concern established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for which the results need to show more than 235 cfu per 100 ml.
The water samples collected by the Department of Environmental Quality on June 11, June 17 and June 25 — the three samples the agency took to test after the Memorial Day outbreak — showed fecal bacteria concentrations associated with E. coli but their levels were also significantly below public health concern.
The possible issue, according to UVA’s Michael Pace, is that the current testing doesn’t analyze the kind of E. coli strains in the water — only its total concentration.
“They use these thresholds as a way of protecting against exposure to E. coli when it’s at a level that would make you sick. They’re good guidelines, tried and tested,” said Pace. “But sometimes, if there is a really bad [strain in the water], then you can get sick from a smaller dose.”
That’s what appeared to have happened with the Memorial Day outbreak, Pace said. Though, he can’t be sure.
Whatever the cause for the outbreak was, for Lynn, whose kids ended up hospitalized for days, all the trust in Lake Anna was lost.
Her daughter was released on June 8. Her son was finally out on June 13. He lost a lot of weight because he had no appetite and he is still traumatized by the experience.
“He’s very scared,” said Lynn. “He won’t poop in the bathroom by himself. He has to have me or my husband in the bathroom because he’s scared to go.”
He finally started to get some of his energy back, said Lynn. It’s too early to know if he will develop any long term side effects. He still has to have blood tests once every two weeks.
Once a healthy child, he now takes blood pressure medicine.
“We sold our boat and we will never be back in that lake again,” Lynn said. “No child should ever have to go through what my two kids went through.”
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