Kings Beach remains closed due to bacteria

LYNN – Kings Beach remains closed to swimming due to high bacteria levels from an unknown source that also prompted the Friday closure of Nahant and Revere beaches, according to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.”Overall, the state has a large number of beaches and at least once a summer, one or two are posted for high bacteria,” said Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) spokesperson SJ Port. “It’s not clear as to what happened this past week, sometimes it’s just an anomaly ? But once we get a bad sample we test daily.”Water samples taken Thursday at Kings Beach in Lynn revealed Enterococci bacteria levels that were three times the recommended levels, Port said. High bacteria levels were also collected in samples from Revere Beach and Nahant (or Long Beach) Beach.These results were received Friday and prompted the DCR to post immediate warnings against swimming at the beaches.The bacteria levels exceeded the state Department of Public Health limit set for bathing in salt water of 104 colony forming units of Enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters of water (cfu/100 ml). Port said that the bacteria can be caused by anything from runoff after a rainstorm to a boat illegally dumping its sewage. Such bacteria can cause gastrointestinal problems in adults and ear infections in children, she said.But while bacteria levels had decreased enough by Friday to allow swimming at Nahant and Revere beaches, Kings Beach remained posted over the weekend and Monday, said Port.”Kings in the past has taken a couple of days to a week to get back to normal,” said Port on Monday. “The way it’s situated, you don’t get as much turnover (of water) and so the bacteria stays longer. It’s a less active beach in terms of water currents. We don’t want to keep people off a beach that is healthy, so we’ll keep testing daily.”But town officials in both Nahant and Swampscott said that they independently test beaches to supplement the DCR testing and ensure that beaches remain open.After Short Beach and Black Rock Beach were posted earlier in July, Nahant Town Administrator Mark Cullinan criticized the 24-hour lag time between when they test and when they get the test results.”They’ve got to find a better way or something that’s quicker,” Cullinan said. If the beaches are tested on Thursday and a second round of testing revealed that bacteria levels were still high, then the beach would be closed over the weekend until the next Monday’s testing, he said.”You’ve got to try to keep the beaches open,” Cullinan said, noting that they are weekend destinations.Ernest Garneau of the Revere Beach Partnership, a non-profit corporation that holds events and advocates for Revere Beach, said that a beach closed to swimming would impact businesses.But high bacteria levels was only one of several factors this past week – including wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour and triple-digit temperatures – that impacted beach traffic.”Thursday it was like a sandstorm,” he said. “When you have wind gusts up to 40-60 and it’s 103 degrees, people don’t even go to the beach, they go someplace in air conditioning.”Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leslie Gould said that the service-oriented businesses along Kings, Nahant and Lynn beaches were less impacted by such closures than strictly tourism-based businesses in Revere or along Salisbury or Hampton beaches might be because not only bathers come to the beaches.”Many of the places do really well on a beautiful day, regardless if people are there to go to the beach or not,” Gould said. “Many people just come to buy an ice cream or food and walk on our promenade. Our strength is that (our beach) is more of a sports or leisure location. People walk, bike, rollerblade, be with kids, rather than just being a bathing area.”Not that microorganisms such as bacteria or algae don’t present any issues.”It’s another thing if there’s a pungent odor and it affects the dining experience, Gould said. “My sens