SWAMPSCOTT — Community members attended a Department of Conservation and Recreation meeting to implore the state agency to devote more resources toward raising awareness of local beach water quality.
The Save King’s Beach movement recently created an online petition with four core statements that it asks participants to express whether or not they agree with. The statements are that King’s and Nahant Beach should be tested daily in 2025, the testing period should be extended through Oct. 1 from its Memorial Day start, a staff member from the Department of Conservation and Recreation should be dispatched to King’s Beach on days it is closed to inform potential visitors, and the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission needs to conduct “systematic sewer investigation” on Lynn Shore Drive with the goal of identifying pollution causes. Thus far, the petition has amassed more than 750 responses from residents of various nearby communities.
Save King’s Beach Co-Founder Andrea Amour, of Swampscott, placed an emphasis on daily water-quality testing for Nahant and other Lynn beaches, as she feels ones with a weekly testing schedule does not gauge the bacteria amount accurately enough.
“We convinced Swampscott to adopt daily testing at Fisherman’s Beach,” Amour said. “With just weekly testing, Fisherman’s Beach was only closed 13% of the time. With daily testing, it was closed 55% of the time.”
Swampscotian Arthur Friedman spoke directly after Amour and endorsed her comments. He placed an emphasis on the core statement regarding the need for the testing period to be extended.
Save King’s Beach member Lori Kotkowski, of Lynn, put an “exclamation point” on the fourth core principle of the petition. She referred to how the response to that part of the petition was unanimous. She asked the DCR add the storm drains that flow into the King’s Beach area to the Illicit Discharge, Detection, and Elimination (IDDE) report for 2025.
“Seven hundred and fifty-six people, residents of Lynn, Swampscott Nahant, and Marblehead… They are just sick and tired of living in this mess,” Kotkowski said. “It’s really shameful that we have this in 2024 and we’re still dealing with it. Please pay attention to us.”
