OK, all the hand-washing stations have been removed in Lynn, a COVID-19 epicenter. Now what?
Health experts have said for months that hand-washing is a vital defense against coronavirus. So why did hand-washing stations set up around Lynn get shut down by the city? Why now — and without a plan to immediately replace them?
City inspectors ordered the stations removed at the start of the month, effectively removing an acknowledged weapon in the fight against coronavirus.
The stations violated city plumbing and sanitary codes, according to city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan and Health Director Michele Desmarais, because their design allows wastewater to flow directly onto the ground instead of into sewers and the pipe network leading to the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission’s (LWSC) Commercial Street treatment plant.
So what?
These things were meant to be temporary, not everlasting.
To put this into context, a typical Saturday afternoon car wash in your driveway generates 40 gallons of water — 10 times greater than each station.
Equipped with refillable water tanks and sinks, the stations were set up at the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), My Brother’s Table, the YMCA, Exchange Street in front of Nightshade Noodle, and Cook Street playground beginning in May and June.
Wouldn’t it be more of a health risk if people cannot wash their hands before entering these locations?
LCHC spokeswoman Cynthia Steger-Wilson said the hand-washing-station tanks were refilled every four to five days before the city shut the stations down, with each refill good for about 2,200 handwashes.
Patients arriving at the health center for appointments washed their hands in the station before entering the Union Street building. The water discharged into landscaping bordering the building.
That arrangement presented a problem for LWSC, which is required under state environmental regulations to monitor water flow and discharge throughout the city.
“What is being discharged is dirty water,” said LWSC Deputy Director Bob Fennell, who added that no one at LWSC was aware of the stations’ existence.
But the point here should be to eradicate coronavirus, not to get bogged down with plumbing codes.
LCHC is on the front line trying to lower Lynn’s persistently-high COVID-19 case rate. Free testing is offered on an appointment or walk-in basis every week day and weekend afternoons.
Steger-Wilson estimated more than 20,000 tests have been conducted to date, sometimes multiple times per one person.
Mayor Thomas M. McGee said the city has worked in a “collaborative” fashion to battle the pandemic. But the city failed to act collaboratively when it shut down the hand-washing stations, instead of seeking an innovative way to keep the stations operating.
The decision by city officials to close the stations represents a failure of imagination and leadership during a global health crisis.
Donovan said the city can issue a plumbing permit within 24 hours of receiving an application. Great. We would like to see Mayor McGee assert his commitment to a collaborative approach in the fight against COVID-19 by pushing to get the hand-washing stations immediately reinstalled.
