Could Swampscott Beach Water Testing Be a North Shore Model?

“Activism played a big part in this,” Committee Chair Liz Smith, an open advocate for more testing and signage around King’s Beach water quality, told Patch. “But they have to have a mechanism to get things done. I think the formation of this committee in Swampscott really pushed things forward.”

While the challenges at King’s Beach on the Swampscott/Lynn line—which Save The Harbor/Save The Bay’s annual survey has consistently shown to be the most polluted beach in Greater Boston and which has been deemed unsafe for swimming by nearly half since last summer—are both disheartening and well-documented, the Committee focused on the more populated Fisherman’s Beach, where safety concerns are just beginning to be examined.

Daily test results this summer have largely shown that beach water should be avoided after any heavy rain storm. Additionally, tests have shown that public areas on one side of the pier are mostly safe for swimming, while private areas on the other side of the pier are more volatile, and the area directly in front of the Marshall Street spillway – much like Stacey’s Brook on King’s Beach – is rarely suitable for human contact.

“The main thing we’re learning so far is that we need to be more proactive in telling people to stay out of the water for 48 hours after heavy rain and we need to tell people they shouldn’t see each other, walk in water, anything. , near those springs,” Smith said. “In general, it’s good advice to avoid beaches near outfalls. Not all beaches have them. But many do. What we found is that in the tests near the Marshall Spillway, (bacteria counts) are extremely big and it’s every day.”

While Swampscott’s daily testing is intended to provide more timely results than the weekly testing required at state Department of Recreation and Conservation beaches such as King’s Beach, it still has a 24-hour time frame that has limitations.

For example, scoreboard results on a Friday are based on Thursday’s tests and will not take into account the effects of an overnight downpour that harms water quality. By Saturday or Sunday, the effects of that rain may be diluted, but the scoreboard will show the negative effects of the torrential rain two days before.

Taking a broader view, the results confirm the damaging influence of heavy rain and stormwater runoff that many don’t realize when they head to the beach when the weather clears for a seemingly beautiful summer weekend after a stormy Thursday and Friday.

“We’re doing everything we can to bring information, to bring data-based information to the table, not to make emotional decisions about where we should test and how often,” Smith said. “We’re leading the charge here.”

Smith added that while Swampscott is doing what it can, there needs to be a more statewide, or at least regional, approach to water quality testing and signage to indicate the presence of outfall pipes at all beaches.

“Each city having to do this individually is not the most efficient way to do it,” she said. “Ignoring exit signs is a regulatory weakness.”

She said the Swampscott committee — which consists of Smith, vice president Chris Vockley and six volunteer members, four alternates she said attended every meeting and three dedicated interns, Ryan Begin of the University of Vermont, Lola Muntiu of Colorado College and Lily Raymond of the University of California-San Diego, who does most of the daily sampling — are sharing their results with the state Department of Public Health, hoping it will influence action at a more regional level.

“It’s really amazing to me what we’ve been able to do as a city,” she said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress.

“But we still have a lot to learn.”

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