Swampscott Summer Beach Water Testing Gets Off To Staggered Start

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott's ambitious attempts to keep beachgoers informed about water conditions at the town's coastline destinations got off to a staggered start this summer with a staff shortage and a seaweed infestation cited as the reasons behind the delayed start to some of the testing programs.

The Select Board updates on Wednesday followed a contentious back-and-forth during last week's Water & Sewer Advisory Committee about the current testing protocol and how the results of that testing were being made available to the public.

Select Board Chair Katie Phelan read a message from Board of Health Chair Gargi Cooper on the state of testing at Fisherman's Beach during Wednesday's meeting.

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"Based on resident feedback and Select Board suggestion, the Board of Health voted to do more data collection for Phillips, Eisman's and Fisherman's based on some of the pipes being fixed," she read. "We wanted to ensure that we were making sound decisions about town programs being held on the beaches that had concerns about contamination. The plan was to collect the data for one month in May prior to the official beach season.

"Unfortunately, due to equipment education and hiring an intern our timeline was pushed back and we started last week. ... The intern — a Swampscott High senior — started last week and there are some training issues and logistics, so we don't have a full week of testing yet. The goal is to test five days a week for a month ... just to inform the public of the testing plan and the results."

Preliminary results show "no exceeding (bacteria counts) in the swimming areas, which is great news, but that there are "some in the outfalls."

"If our data continues to show that we are in the (acceptable) range, we do not have plans to continue for the summer," Cooper's message concluded.

The results of the testing, now posted, can be found on the town website.

Select Board member Doug Thompson addressed some of the pushback on the delayed results.

"It's really unfortunate with the amount of time and effort that people put in on committees, whether it's the Board of Health or Water & Sewer, that as soon as something doesn't happen immediately the way someone wants it to happen, it seems to be a conspiracy," Thompson said. "People are trying. They have their jobs, they have their lives, and they are doing this on top of it. If you want to help, that's great. But we are all trying to move in a similar direction. And when people are kind of called out for hiding things, not sharing information — maybe that happens eventually, I'm not saying it never does — but I am just saying that I wish people would reach out directly instead of blasting people on social media.

"It just doesn't really help the tone of the town for that to be the go-to way to try to get things done."

On the UV light pilot program at King's Beach, Interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta said the treatment mechanism took in an excess of seaweed at the start of the intended testing window to determine the UV treatment's effectiveness as a more permanent solution, which delayed the start of the data collection.

"The suction pumps were taking in a lot of seaweed," Cresta said. "We had to shut the system down, remove the seaweed, and we hope to fire it back up again (on Thursday)."

Cresta said testing at other beaches may continue this summer based on the number of student volunteers that can be recruited.

(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.)