SHUTESBURY — Lake Wyola State Park’s beach continues to be closed to swimming this week due to high levels of Enterococci bacteria, with red flags placed on the beach and visitors informed about the situation at both the park entrance and by lifeguards, according to an official with the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

With the freshwater lake tested every Tuesday, officials are not anticipating that this week’s results will allow for swimming, said Madison Kimball, a laborer 1 for the state department that oversees the Carroll A. Holmes Recreation Area.

The first test showing that 61 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters was exceeded occurred on July 17, according to Kimball. While a single sample may fall below this, the state park also uses a second metric for the swimming area, the 30-day geomean threshold of 33 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters.

Due to last week’s single sample being very high, over 150 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters, Kimball said the geomean will likely remain too high to allow swimming.

Kimball said recent rainfall that has put bacteria and other debris into the water is likely to keep the Enterococci levels high, but it is hard to say whether the closure will be in effect through the rest of the warm-weather season.

“That is pretty difficult to predict because there are many factors that can increase bacteria,” Kimball said.

Area beaches closed

The state Department of Public Health’s Interactive Beach Dashboard on Wednesday showed that 49 beaches across Massachusetts are closed, with two in Amherst — both Puffer’s Pond in North Amherst and the “Jump Bridge” swimming hole off Stanley Street. These two closures are due to high levels of E. coli. Meanwhile, Ellis Beach in Athol is also closed due to “bacterial exceedance.”

After passing its most recent water test, the Green River Swimming and Recreation Area in Greenfield opened for swimming on Wednesday afternoon.

Still, a number of beaches that have their water tested weekly remain open to swimmers throughout Hampshire and Franklin counties. Those include Musante Beach in Northampton, Town Beach in Belchertown, Tri-Town Beach in Whately, Tolgy Wood Camp in Chesterfield, Upper Highland Lake (or Campers’ Beach) at the DAR State Forest in Goshen and Plainfield Pond in Plainfield.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.