LYNN — Adam Hinds, who is running for lieutenant governor, and State Sen. Brendan Crighton visited King’s Beach on the border of Lynn and Swampscott Wednesday to discuss the allocation of $5 million from ARPA funding to improve water quality.
“It’s an environmental justice issue,” said Hinds.
Crighton said that King’s Beach has some of the worst water quality in the region, and that for the last several years the legislators have been trying to find a solution to improve water quality there.
With the recent debates over ARPA funding, Crighton offered an amendment to allocate $5 million to improve water quality in Lynn and Swampscott – $2.5 million for Lynn and $2.5 million for Swampscott.
“We need to make the beach safe and accessible for all residents,” said Crighton.
Historical drainage or runoff water and local tributaries like Stacey’s Brook find their way to the ocean at King’s Beach. Aging infrastructure, i.e., cracks and holes in pipes, creates a conducive environment for collecting bacteria and delivering them to the ocean. Improving the infrastructure has been long, expensive, and painful work, said Crighton.
“While we continue to make infrastructure improvements, we must also think outside the box for potential short term solutions,” said Crighton.
Another suggestion the legislators made for improving the water quality is through addressing the flagging issue. The flagging system through which the Department of Public Health (DPH) conducts the water testing is slow, and often by the time the flags are red the next day, the water quality has already improved, said Crighton.
The legislators are now working with the City of Lynn and the Town of Swampscott, as well as with DPH and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that owns the beach, to ensure that the best practices are employed to make the beach swimmable.
Bringing in all the actors – the legislators, community leaders, and governmental entities – is the task that Hinds, with his experience in international politics and in particular in the tumultuous Middle Eastern region, can handle best. From his perspective, the solution to the King’s Beach problem lies in bringing “the right agencies around the table.”
“I really hope to draw my background in international negotiations to make sure we are mobilizing the government,” said Hinds.
Local resident, Mary Cheever, approached the legislators taking a walk along the beach and expressed her gratitude for the upcoming project, because it directly affected her and everyone who lived “down there,” said Cheever.
“It is an environmental and economic issue, because it’s not fair that everyone on the North Shore has clean beaches and we don’t,” she said.
Crighton said that he will work to make sure that the next administration prioritizes water quality at King’s Beach and that all stakeholders will continue to work together.
Hinds said that it was very impactful for him to see how big the issue at King’s Beach was, and that “it needs to be done, and it needs to be done now.”
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
