'Effective And Successful': Swampscott King's Beach UV Light Treatment Results Revealed

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The two-month UV Light bacteria treatment pilot program designed to determine the effectiveness of cleaning water running into the highly polluted King's Beach in Swampscott and Lynn proved "effective and successful," according to a report released on Friday.

While the report determined that UV treatment "effectively treats day-to-day weather stormwater flows from the Lynn and Swampscott culverts," the path to a permanent treatment facility remains daunting, and includes further testing on effectiveness during larger rain events, determining the site and necessities of a permanent facility and — perhaps most daunting of all — how to pay for any long-term treatment operation.

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"There are numerous operation and maintenance challenges that need to be addressed with engineering controls in the design of a permanent facility," the Kleinfelder engineering analysis said.

The report was set to be presented to the Swampscott Select Board upon its release to the public this week, with next steps being discussed at the next Select Board meeting on Oct. 22.

The report concluded that UV treatment can reduce the number of days King's Beach is closed during a given summer season "even though there are other factors affecting beach closures beyond the discharges from the subject outfalls."

Kleinfelder said both the city of Lynn and the town of Swampscott must determine whether to proceed with what could be a lengthy and expensive implementation process of a permanent facility.

It was recommended that a 12-month study be launched to understand how the treatment would work in varied weather conditions, that there be targeted "wet weather testing" because much of the testing this summer came during an abnormally dry season with few torrential rain events, and to analyze the sediment of material deposits in the Lynn and Swampscott culverts to test for bacteria and other contaminants.

It was also recommended that a feasibility study be commissioned to determine the preliminary design of a potential treatment facility, that Lynn and Swampscott engage regulators on the permitting hurdles of building such a facility, that discussions begin on where that facility would actually be located, and that the cost estimates of building and operating such a facility be refined to help determine viability.

Swampscott Select Board members at a meeting in February expressed concerns that, while the pilot program would likely prove some effectiveness, the overall implementation of that as a permanent fix to the century-old pollution problem would ultimately be cost-prohibitive without substantial state and federal funding for the project.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)