LYNN — In response to a recent EPA requirement regarding the illicit discharges into the Nahant Bay, the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission has decided to hire a contractor to find their possible sources, as was announced at the commission’s meeting that took place Monday evening.
In June 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted unannounced sampling at seven stormwater outfalls to Nahant Bay, including from Stacey Brook, Floating Bridge Pond, Sluice Pond, Flax Pond, Strawberry Brook, and the Saugus River. The agency found elevated levels of ammonia, chlorine, and bacteria in the majority of the samples, as well as the presence of personal and household products.
Because of the sampling results and the frequent closure of King’s Beach last summer, the EPA sent a letter to the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission (LWSC) dated Sep. 27 with additional requirements regarding illicit discharges to the beach.
LWSC decided to hire a company called Environmental Partners to update its Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) Plan and to conduct a search for illicit-discharge sources. These measures will cost the commission almost $92,000.
The Commission’s IDDE plan has been updated in 2013, 2016, and 2017, said Chief Engineer Anthony Marino.
“The commission has done investigations through the years and testing before each beach season,” Marino said. But investigations have only found six to eight illicit connections. The size of the area ― 950 acres ― prevents the commission from easily finding the sources of the pollution.
In terms of overflows that affected drainage into the bay, the area had a lot of rain in July 2021 that caused four instances of overflows and led to the beach closures. In 2019, overflows happened two times for 15 and 30 minutes, respectively. In 2020, there was only one instance of an overflow, which lasted 15 minutes.
Daniel O’Neill, executive director of LWSC, said that the closure of the beach was partially caused by the more stringent updated rules and calculations to determine when the beach should be closed. If the sample reading deviation is large, he said, he would track it down, but if the deviations are smaller, it is harder to pinpoint the source and the commission doesn’t have enough staff and resources to do it.
According to the agreement with Environmental Partners, the IDDE plan will be updated between November and Dec. 1 (Task 1). It will include an updated storm-drain map, up to 15 sub-catchment maps of the King’s Beach watershed, a list of key junction manholes, a catchment investigation plan, a preliminary implementation schedule and required staffing, resources and budgetary commitment.
The next phase (Task 2) will include a preliminary King’s Beach catchment investigation. During this investigation stormwater samples will be tested for ammonia (urine), detergents, and bacteria.
If any illicit connections are found during this stage, they will be immediately removed, said O’Neill.
Eric Kelley, an associate and a project manager from Environmental Partners, said that they will identify 20 areas and more sub-areas where they will be looking to find problems. Besides a field team, they will be deploying a K-9 team, as dogs can detect pollutants easier and can cover more ground. At this point, they don’t know if the issues are coming from illicit connections to the drainage system, pet waste, or because of the aging and failing infrastructure underground.
“The field program is going to look at trying to localize problem areas,” said Kelley. “So that ultimately we can know where more time and energy need to go instead of doing a systemic thing and spending time and energy in the areas where you don’t need to be looking.”
Preliminary field examination will take place in January-February. Extensive surveys can then be done in suspicious areas with additional testing and TV work in spring.
“Right now the goal is to do it during the dry weather conditions so if you are getting an illicit source it is going to show itself,” said Kelley, adding that during wet weather the results get diluted. “We are trying to catch it, hypothetically, at its highest concentration.”
The field survey will be conducted from the bay area to further into the city.
The schedule of Task 2 will depend on EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s review and approval of the updated IDDE plan, but Environmental Partners estimates that it will be completed by February 2022.
The commission also discussed if King’s Beach pollution problems could be solved by bringing outflow pipes several miles into the ocean, like some other communities do. However, Kelley and Save the Harbor /Save the Bay representative Chris Mancini said that moving the pipe would require going through a challenging permitting process and that the regulators would first require solving the on-shore problems at the source.
