LYNN — The Board of Health discussed the issue of contamination of the city’s bodies of water at its meeting Tuesday.
The state Board of Health announced the closure of Lynn Shore Beach on Tuesday because of bacterial exceedance.
At its meeting, the Lynn Board of Health also brought attention to the unsafe conditions of Stacey’s Brook, a waterway in Lynn and Swampscott that contains bacteria from sewers and stormwater.
According to the King’s Beach website, exposure to the water in Stacey’s Brook can make people sick.
“Stacey’s Brook has connections to toilets, broken pipes, and outdated systems, creating a nearly constant bacteria count in the outfall and the nearby beach areas,” the website reads. “The Department of Conservation and Recreation and Lynn and Swampscott are working to fix this issue.”
Public Health Director Lisa Tobin said that access to clean beach water for residents of the city is a way for people to be able to cake care of themselves and their families.
She said that, especially in a community like Lynn where people might not have access to air-conditioning units, having access to clean water that people can swim in is very important.
“I do for sure think that everybody is working on it,” Tobin said. “It’s just not an easy fix.”
She said a constituent asked the Board of Health to recommend that people not swim in Stacey’s Brook and inform them of the danger of doing so.
Tobin said this is because, at times, the water at Stacey’s Brook is deep enough for children to wade and swim in.
“They think, ‘Oh, that’s a great body of water for my 3-year-old to sit in and splash in,’ without realizing that it’s not just natural water that’s coming into the ocean and people maybe aren’t really recognizing that,” she said.
“It’s certainly something that’s being worked on by the state delegation. I think everybody recognizes the impact that it’s having, especially in a community like Lynn. We are already an environmental justice community,” Tobin added.
Board member Dr. Clark Van Den Berghe said that people should be paying close attention to the signage on beaches that are closed.
“Don’t ignore it, because it can make you sick,” he said.
