LYNN — As beach season is upon us, there are lingering concerns over the water quality of King’s Beach.
On Saturday, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay released its annual Metropolitan Beaches Water Quality Report Card, and King’s Beach had one of the lowest water quality scores for the 2021 beach season. It placed 14th of out 15 Boston metropolitan beaches, with 68 percent of water samples being compliant with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s single sample limit for bacteria. Its six-year average safety rating is 78 percent.
Pleasure Bay and City Point Beach in South Boston, Nantasket Beach in Hull and Winthrop Beach had perfect scores of 100 percent, while Tenean Beach in Dorchester placed last with 63 percent.
“We generally know that there is an issue at King’s Beach, primarily with the Stacey Brooke outfall, and that both Lynn and Swampscott are putting a lot of focus on trying to figure out how best to address the issue in both those municipalities,” said Chris Mancini, executive director of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay.
“We have been working with the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, the Town of Swampscott and our state and federal delegation to address this issue,” said Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson. “While we determine options, we remain committed to keeping residents and beachgoers informed on water quality to ensure the health and safety of all.”
Solving the water quality issues at Kings Beach will take some effort, some time and some money, Mancini said. It cost $180 million to clean and take the outflow pipes off of South Boston beaches, which now are considered to be some of the cleanest urban beaches in the country.
“It is doable, and people are focused on it. I am hopeful, it is just a question of time and effort,” said Mancini, who moved to the Swampscott/Lynn border about a year-and-a-half ago to try to address King’s Beach issues.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a non-profit public interest harbor advocacy organization founded in 1986, analyzes water quality data available from the Department of Conservation and Recreation and Department of Public Health on an annual basis.
In 2021, the overall water quality safety rating for the Boston Harbor’s region’s beaches was 86 percent, down from the 2020 score of 93 percent. There were far more rain events in the region in 2021, according to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, with 19 storms exceeding a half-inch of rain and 12 storms exceeding one inch of rain.
According to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, even a moderate rain can overwhelm older “combined sewer systems” that mix runoff and sewerage, as well as wash more pollutants from lawns, parking lots, and streets into nearby waterways.
“Considering the wet weather, most of the region’s beaches scored quite well, earning A’s and B’s,” said Mancini.
In drier years, the scores are usually better, that is why Save the Harbor/Save the Bay prefers to rely on multi-year averages in evaluating overall water quality on the region’s public beaches.
The organization’s analysis looks at such simple indicators as whether the beach was open and whether the bacteria count was over or under the threshold for closing the beach, Mancini said.
King’s Beach, for example, is tested every day from Memorial Day through the end of the beach season, on or just after Labor Day, which provides about 100 to 115 water quality samples. Beaches with good water quality get tested once a week.
However, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay does not consider the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s system of informing the public about the beach water quality efficient or accurate.
“The best technology still takes 24 hours to get a result,” Mancini said, which is why when the department closes a beach or posts the warning flag, the data is already a day old.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay proposes to install accurate and accessible rain gauges and to make the information available online in real-time with a QR code. When the rainfall level in a gauge is high enough to predict higher bacteria levels in the ocean water as a result, beach attendants could post a warning flag right away.
“We can – and should – do better than the current system, which relies on yesterday’s results and is a terrible predictor of today’s water quality,” said Bruce Berman, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s director of strategy and communications.
The general public can also rely on tides when they want to use King’s beach after a rain event, Mancini said. A couple of tide cycles help flush out the water after about 24 hours.
“And of course, I just don’t swim in the book or near it,” said Mancini. “You want to be down at either end of the beach.”
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is also working with the Department of Conservation and Recreation to put some more signage up that will call attention directly to the outfall.
Sen. Brendan Crighton (D–Lynn), who co-chairs the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, acknowledged that the water quality at King’s Beach continues to be a challenge even in dry weather.
“Solving the persistent pollution problems that still prevent people from safely enjoying that beach is a public health priority for the delegation and for our community,” he said.
Crighton is hoping that the $5.3 million secured by him and state Rep. Lori Ehrlich (D-Marblehead) in December in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will help solve the issues.
