NAHANT — At its meeting, the Board of Selectmen discussed outfall to King’s Beach.
Chairman Joshua Antrim said that the outfall at King’s Beach has been getting a lot of coverage in the press, which he said he is “glad to hear about.”
To get a better understanding of the matter, Antrim said he reached out to Swampscott resident and co-founder of Save King’s Beach Andrea Amour to better understand what it is, and what isn’t being done about the outfall.
Vice Chairman Eugene “Gene” Canty said that he agrees with Antrim looking for better understanding, and that the board of selectmen needs to “get more involved, and have a greater understanding.”
Town Administrator Antonio “Tony” Barletta said that the way testing is being performed currently “isn’t great,” and said that it is not meeting the standards which a lot of people feel that it should be at.
“Right now, you grab a sample, send it to the lab, it’s 24 hours before you get a result,” Barletta said. “By the time that the result comes in…it doesn’t even accurately reflect what the current state of the water is, because of the tide cycle…”
Barletta said that this problem is not just a problem for Nahant, and that the whole state uses the same testing methodologies, but said that faster testing would be a “significant improvement,” and that there is a “regional aspect to the issues being caused by this problem.”
Outside of the testing, Antrim said that the biggest problem remains untreated water “continually” making its way into larger bodies of water, which he said has been talked about since he was a child.
Barletta said that he had been in discussions with the Town of Swampscott, who has recently formed a task force to help mitigate these issues, having also received grant monies as well.
From the discussions, Barletta said that there was positive reactions regarding potential engagement from Nahant on the task force, but that ultimately, it is Swampscott’s task force. “We’ve got to work with them in a positive manner,” he said.
