LYNN — Second only to a beach in Boston, Lynn’s King’s Beach had Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s signage warning swimmers about poor water quality more than any other tested beach in the state last year.
The state’s Bureau of Environmental Health, within the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), has released its annual report for Massachusetts beach-testing results — the most current report is a summary of data for the year 2019.
The data shows that in 2019 King’s Beach was the second most “posted” beach in the state — “posted” is the term the DPH uses when signage advising against swimming is put up because a beach’s bacteria levels exceed water quality standards.
Water quality is determined in part by measurements of the level of certain bacteria, such as enterococci, which can cause a variety of infections. If multiple samples at a beach are taken in a row that show bacteria levels exceed DPH standards, a beach can be posted.
In 2019, King’s Beach was posted 51 times, only surpassed by Tenean Beach in Boston (66 times), and followed by Landing Road in Duxbury (36 times), Malibu Beach in Boston (31 times), and Wollaston Beach in Quincy (30 times).
According to the DPH, the exceedance rate last year was relatively higher across the state in general, with significant rain in June and July contributing to the bacteria levels.
In 2018, King’s Beach was still a top-five most-posted beach in the state, but was posted 27 times. In 2017, it was only posted four times, which Friends of Lynn and Nahant Beach Vice President Michael Cerona said was an uncharacteristic year during an otherwise decades-long problem with high bacteria levels.
According to Friends of Lynn and Nahant Beach, high bacteria levels have been a problem at King’s Beach in part because of continual stormwater and sewage discharge from the pipes on the seawall near the Lynn-Swampscott line.
Friends of Lynn and Nahant Beach has been advocating for cleaner water and appropriate public notice about water quality for years, including last summer, when more than 50 residents showed up at City Hall to discuss the bacteria levels at a meeting held by City Council President Darren Cyr. Ultimately, a five-person committee was formed to study water quality at the beach, with Celona appointed as the Friends of Lynn and Nahant Beach representative on the committee.
The DPH posts recent data about beach water quality at https://ma-beaches.healthinspections.us/index.cfm?.
