SWAMPSCOTT — Roughly 75 residents gathered on the second floor of Mission on the Bay, enjoying their meals while sipping sewage-themed cocktails, such as whiskey sewers and filthy dirty martinis, at Tuesday night’s Save King’s Beach’s fundraiser.
From 5 to 7:30 p.m., Mission on the Bay donated 15% of all its food and non-alcoholic beverage sales to the activist group Save King’s Beach. Proceeds from the event, Save King’s Beach organizer Andrea Amour said, will go toward the group’s public-information campaign.
Though the event raised funds for the group’s future protests and campaigns, Amour said its main goal was to raise awareness about the sewage-laced stormwater that pollutes King’s Beach.
“The people are all very passionate about this issue, but then they don’t necessarily know how to act on that passion,” Amour said. “It’s less about the money and more about folks showing up in support of this project. The ultimate goal here is to get the town rallying around this really important, not very fun project that we have to undertake.”
Save King’s Beach planned the event for the day before the Select Board’s Wednesday night meeting, at which it will discuss American Rescue Plan Act funding allocations. Amour said she hoped to rally Save King’s Beach members to speak at the meeting and advocate for the town to allocate $2.5 million in ARPA funds toward Swampscott’s source-elimination efforts, along with an additional $2.1 million in general ARPA funds.
Working under a 2015 consent decree from the Environmental Protection Agency, Swampscott is responsible for source elimination — re-sleeving or replacing its old clay pipes, which leak sewage into the town’s wastewater pipe. This causes sewage-laced wastewater to spill onto the beach through the Stacey’s Brook outfall.
“Having $4.5 million infused into that project is a great step in the right direction, but we have to get that vote first. That’s what we’re advocating for at this happy hour tonight,” Amour said.
Nahant resident Dylan Dobbyn, who attended the fundraiser, said he is advocating for King’s Beach cleanup efforts because he loves water sports and is concerned with the possible health risks associated with swimming in the beach. Dobbyn said his friend recently contracted sepsis after swimming at King’s Beach.
“It’s good to draw attention to the fact that people do actually get sick from using this beach,” Dobbyn said. “It was to the point of being life-threatening — he was in the ICU for several days. He was one of thousands of people who used the beach all summer.”
Select Board Chair David Grishman discussed the King’s Beach cleanup project with residents and activists at the fundraiser. He said that the town will ultimately decide how to spend the remainder of its ARPA funds after drafting a capital plan and checking in with other department heads.
“It’s our hope that we can look at the entirety of what’s coming in from department heads to figure out how those remaining ARPA funds are going to be allocated toward things like the King’s Beach project, as well as other projects that are happening in town,” Grishman said. “We’re not just giving this lip service… It’s going to require a well thought-out solution so that we can resolve it for this generation, and future generations, of North Shore residents.”
Mission on the Bay owner Marty Bloom said that with the beach’s close proximity to his restaurant, and the pollution affecting all of the North Shore, he was more than happy to chip in to the cleanup effort.
“That’s the front door to our restaurant. That’s our beach, that’s where we live. So we have a very high stake in making sure it’s maintained as best as nature will let it be,” Bloom said. “It shows an attempt to try to at least push things in the right direction a little. That’s all we can do — just try to lead by example and do the right thing.”
