Swampscott Beach Contamination The Talk Of Select Board Meeting

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A Swampscott Select Board meeting designed to address the weekend sewage outflow from Lynn that affected King's Beach — and how the town responds to the occasional releases that can pour more than 1 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage onto the shoreline — raised more widespread concerns from some Board members when they were informed that swimming should be generally discouraged for 24 to 48 hours at virtually all beaches following any heavy rain event because of stormwater runoff pollution.

Health Director Jeff Vaughan specifically addressed the town's response to the Lynn overflow this past weekend with robocall notifications and no swimming signs on Sunday after officials were informed of the discharge between 6 and 10 p.m. Saturday night. He said that from now on there will also be yellow caution tape at the beach entrances for up to 48 hours after such outflows at Stacey's Brook.

Vaughan told the Board that the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission did not notify the town of a similar overflow discharge earlier in June.

"It's hard to be transparent when we didn't know about it," he said, adding that steps were taken once the town did learn of the previous release to make sure there was a more rapid response to future overflows."Our communication is going to be better."

King's Beach remained closed to swimming on Wednesday — as it has been since June 6 — because of weekly testing showing that, even without the sewage releases, the number of bacteria detected in the waters 3 feet off the beach caused by fecal contamination has exceeded state regulations for nearly two months largely due to complications from the stormwater runoff at Stacey's Brook.

"We had so many rain events close to when we do our tests — which is on Wednesdays — that we've been inundated," Vaughan said.

(Also on Patch: Fixing Swampscott's King's Beach: Some Progress, Ongoing Frustrations)

The wider concerns arose when Vaughan said the public should be informed to stay out of the water at most any beach — specifically in Swampscott, but theoretically across the North Shore — for 24 to 48 hours after any major rain event.

"The messaging has to be that anytime we have heavy rains — especially coved beaches like Fisherman's, Eisman's and King's — it takes a while for that to filter out," he said.

Select Board member Katie Phelan asked why all beaches are not tested after every major rain event with Vaughan saying that's not really feasible.

"You could test every day but you would get different numbers according to the rain," Vaughan said. "Anytime it rains, it's going to affect every one of these beaches because they all have some sort of water coming into them.

"We don't have to test every day to know what's happening after heavy rains."

By that rationale, of course, a heavy rain event on a Friday — which is possible with a strong cold front this Friday — could make the beaches, at least theoretically, unsafe to swim in through the entire ensuing weekend.

During an albeit-historic stretch of downpours like this past June and July, swimming would be ostensibly discouraged at all beaches for months.

More specifically to King's Beach, Vaughan said the tides and the sand's filtration ability help dilute the contaminants after the prescribed 24 to 48 hours.

Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said the Department of Public Works has been raking the beach to help make sure the sand portion — which is not considered off-limits, only the swimmable water 3 feet or more offshore —is as clean as possible.

While some members of the Save King's Beach Facebook group expressed some reassurance that both Lynn and Swampscott leaders were being more proactive about notifications regarding beach closures in the wake of the latest sewage outflow out of Lynn, the sheer volume of beach closure days — 86 percent of all days this summer, according to the group's Facebook page —appears to be pushing long-standing frustrations over notifications and the efforts to mitigate the pollution to a tipping point.

The state has launched a new interactive dashboard to inform residents of beach closures and water testing results with King's Beach listed as the only Swampscott beach off-limits to swimming on Wednesday.

Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher also said she was "not comfortable" with the fact that the customary public comment was suspended for Wednesday's meeting. An extensive Select Board discussion with public comment did occur on July 19.

King's Beach advocate Liz Smith told Patch on Wednesday night that she intended to speak at public comment at this meeting to provide some credit for the response to the most recent overflow but also once again raise questions about what the town is doing to prevent the source contamination and adhere to the consent decree signed with the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2015 to locate contamination sources and fix them.

Select Board members and the town administrator are encouraged not to respond directly to public comments at open meetings but use the comment to gauge sentiment on issues and inform future discussions and decisions.

(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.)