LYNN — The Swampscott Conservancy, Friends of Lynn & Nahant Beach, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) hosted a virtual panel discussion on Tuesday evening on King’s Beach, talking about the sources of poor water quality and current status of the mitigation efforts.
“Everyone seems to be rallying around the water quality issue at King’s Beach,” said Crighton.
Crighton shared an update on the efforts of the state legislature. He said that he and state Reps. Peter Capano (D-Lynn) and Daniel Cahill (D-Lynn) and former state Rep. Lori Ehrlich (D-Marblehead) pursued funding from the Bonds Bill before the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding became available during the pandemic and were able to secure $5.3 million for King’s Beach in December 2021, to be shared between Lynn and Swampscott.
Crighton admitted that it is a very costly project both on the Lynn and Swampscott sides, but they wanted to “get the ball rolling” and get people’s attention.
“At this point we have a federal delegation, state government, local government and community groups raising the issue on a regular basis,” Crighton said.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions, Crighton said, about the improvement of the infrastructure on the land side as well as about potential treatment and remediation on the water side.
“There seems to be a buy-in for water and sewer infrastructure and water quality from the administration we haven’t seen previously,” Crighton said, mentioning that the state delegation has met with Secretary of Environmental Affairs Kathleen A. Theoharides several times.
Michael Celona, a representative from Friends of Lynn & Nahant Beach, explained to the audience where the water quality issues at King’s Beach stem from. He said that the issues span from the 19th century when Stacey’s Brook was used for open sewer before it was completely put underground.
Celona called the issues the tale of two pipes and the tale of two beaches, as the outflow pipes belong to Lynn and Swampscott, respectively, and the testing on the two sides of the beach is done separately. Both pipes are under federal court orders to be fixed, which is expensive and time consuming.
“After high-volume rain events, the Lynn pipe will occasionally release high-volume sewage,” Celona said.
The water flowing out of the Lynn pipe originates from the Glenmere/Floating Bridge Pond near Route 107, groundwater from 600 acres of land in Lynn and parts of Stacey’s Brook.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lynn spent a lot of money to separate sewer connections from the pipe, Celona said; however, it appears that some were missed. In addition, a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) valve was installed in the pipe that releases large quantities of sewage during heavy rainstorms.
In Swampscott, the clay sewer pipes were laid next to the stormwater pipes and they are breaking and leaking into the stormwater, Celona said.
The Lynn side of the beach is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, while the Swampscott side of the beach is managed and monitored by the town’s Department of Public Works and Health Department.
Jim Olivetti, vice president of the Swampscott Conservancy, said that in Swampscott the readings of the bacteria in the water jumps high after heavy storm events, but drops to the safe range the next day. The water gets tested every Wednesday and if the storm happens on a different day, the results might not catch the jump in the bacteria concentration.
“When I moved to Swampscott almost 11 years ago now, a neighbor warned me not to swim the day after the storm no matter what day of the week it was,” said Olivetti.
There is no coordination of testing between the Lynn and Swampscott sides.
“If Lynn discovers a poor water quality situation, Swampscott does not post a warning sign,” said Olivetti.
In 2022, the Swampscott Health Department is going to pilot a new flagging program on the beach. The signs’ wording is dictated by the state, Olivetti said, but signs are made by the town only in English.
Chris Mancini, a representative from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay who lives in Swampscott, said collaboration between the two communities is key in this complicated situation and coordination needs to happen in all aspects, such as the clean up, communication or signage.
In 2020, King’s Beach was the lowest rated in terms of water quality among other Boston Metropolitan Area beaches, Mancini said. He advised the beach-goers not to go into the outflow as it is unsafe.
Mancini also brought up the issue of environmental justice, as many Lynn residents don’t have other options to cool off on hot summer days and King’s Beach is the most accessible to them.
Currently, the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission is going through the process of identifying illicit connections to the outflow pipe and Swampscott is relining pipes to eliminate dry weather issues. Mancini also encouraged citizens to keep the issue “on the front burner” by bringing it up to officials and asking questions.
Because of the complexity of the issue and competition for resources, Celona estimated that pollution of the beach won’t be fixed on Lynn’s side until the early 2030s. Mancini estimated the cost of fixing the problem at $15-$30 million.
Crighton said that officials don’t have a timeline for further actions because they need to understand the steps that need to happen.
“We are trying to see what is done elsewhere,” said Crighton. “Some of it is super expensive.”
Meanwhile, a couple of participants in Tuesday’s discussion suggested having volunteers on the beach this summer to warn the public and explain the risks, preferably, in several languages.
