Sewage disks appear in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD – Add Marblehead to the list of coastal communities where New Hampshire sewage treatment plant disks have been found.Director of Public Health Wayne Attridge said he began getting calls from beachgoers over the weekend and the bacteria-contaminated white plastic disks are appearing “on pretty much all our beaches.”An estimated 300 disks have been retrieved from Devereux Beach alone.Clean-up by ENPRO Environmental crews has begun. Attridge provided the company, which is working for the state Department of Environmental Protection, with a list of beach locations, including numerous private ocean-side beaches.The disks broke free from containment at a Hooksett, N.H. facility March 6 and drifted down the Merrimack River to Newburyport and Salisbury, where they reached the ocean. They have been washing up on beaches at least as far south as Revere ever since.Taking a cue from the DEP, Attridge said that the disks have been exposed to sunlight and salt water and tests indicate that the bacteria levels in them are low.Residents can pick the disks up and dispose of them as long as they wear plastic gloves when handling the disks and wash their hands afterward. The DEP warns against handling the disks with bare hands.Attridge noted, “There were millions of these disks and so far only hundreds of thousands have been retrieved. They appear to be a nuisance, but they will be a nuisance for some time.”According to The Associated Press, New Hampshire?s Department of Environmental Services took administrative action against Hooksett, giving the town 10 days to submit a plan on how it will collect the rest of the disks and reimburse communities and individuals who have spent money on the cleanup. The state also gave the town 14 days to submit a written report on what led to the release of the disks and 60 days to demonstrate how the disks can be used in a way that will prevent a recurrence.