NAHANT — Although Lynn and Swampscott, which are both working in compliance with separate Environmental Protection Agency grants toward pollution source elimination, have primarily led the efforts to clean King’s Beach, Nahant might soon be taking a seat at the table.
Town Administrator Tony Barletta and Board of Selectmen Chair Mark Cullinan will meet with state Sen. Brendan Crighton and Rep. Peter Capano on Thursday to discuss Nahant’s role in a pollution issue that impacts the coastal region. Barletta said the meeting will serve primarily as an informational session to find out how the town can support efforts to mitigate beach pollution and how, if at all, potential solutions might impact Nahant.
“It’s to discuss this topic on more of a regional basis than just isolated with Swampscott and Lynn. We certainly don’t want to step on any toes or try to take the lead on this or push it into any certain direction,” Barletta said. “We can finalize our relationship with our state delegation and then bring in our neighboring municipalities to have more of a regional discussion on the situation.”
The King’s Beach Steering Committee, which comprises Lynn and Swampscott public officials alongside other organizations, has been in communication with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in an attempt to supplement their source-elimination efforts with state-supported pollution-elimination infrastructure.
Although a number of options are still on the table, such as ultraviolet-light treatment of the water or chlorination treatment, the Commonwealth has been most receptive toward the construction of a 7,500-foot extension pipe at Stacey’s Brook, which would allow sewage-laced stormwater to travel past the outfall and expel closer to Nahant.
The extension-pipe proposal sparked concern among some Nahant residents, who fear the pipe would relocate the sewage-contaminated water to the town’s beaches. At a question-and-answer session with Crighton earlier this month, Safer Waters in Massachusetts President Vi Patek expressed concern with the extension pipe’s impact on Nahant’s beaches, saying that the pipe would merely push the infected water closer to the shores of Nahant and Marblehead.
Crighton responded that similar concerns are being raised at the state level, and that he’s pleased with how outspoken Nahant residents have been on the issue.
“I share that exact question, which is one of the things we’ve been wrestling with our friends in the administration on. There’s a reason why it’s eight-plus years to get this done. It’s because you will be dealing with several government entities on both levels,” Crighton said. “It would need to pass so many environmental tests that it makes me wonder about its viability… This is very much a preliminary look at what the options are and frankly, none of them are good, none of them are fast, none of them are cheap.”
In an interview Monday, Patek said the proposed outfall pipe’s proximity to Egg Rock, a state-owned island currently functioning as a bird sanctuary, is a cause for concern and highlighted King’s Beach pollution as a regional problem.
“Nahant SWIM is very concerned about the concept of an outfall sewage pipe coming within half a mile of Nahant’s shores, and our Board of Selectmen and town administrator are also very concerned,” Patek said. “This is something that Marblehead and Lynn and Nahant and even Salem should all be concerned about. That pipe isn’t just sitting there in isolation. Everything in the water is affected by this.”
