The ultraviolet (U.V.) pilot program on King’s Beach has been temporarily turned off after the pumps and pipes became clogged with a significant amount of seaweed.
Mayor Jared Nicholson spoke with The Item and explained the background on the issue and how the recent Nor’easter resulted in seaweed accumulating over the weir wall during high tide.
“This has been an issue for decades, and we’re working on a number of different solutions, but one of the ones that we’re focusing on is source elimination,” Nicholson said. He added that complementary solutions are also being explored.
Nicholson noted that the pilot program launched this spring and was officially turned on June 2, where it showed promising results in the elimination of bacteria.
“Then the pumps had an issue with the concentration of seaweed. We believe that there was a concentration of seaweed higher than expected due to the recent nor’easter,” Nicholson said. He continued, saying that Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, Sunbelt Consulting LLP, and the town of Swampscott are collaborating to get the project back on track.
The city noted in a statement that the pilot team is working on developing a solution to prevent seaweed from entering the UV pilot system’s pumps and methods to improve operations and maintenance (O&M) practices on the beach, to ensure continuous operation going forward. While the seaweed does not pose an issue for the UV system itself, it does cause issues for the pumps feeding water to the UV system.
Swampscott Interim Town Administrator and Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) Gino Cresta also commented on the efforts to clean the pumps and pipes.
“We’re having an issue with the pumps sucking up the seaweed, which isn’t allowing the pumps to work to their full capacity,” Cresta said. “We’re working with the consultant right now to figure out a way to figure out how to mitigate the seaweed.”
Cresta said he thought what happened was abnormal. “It’s started to subside now, but we just have to find a way to get the seaweed that’s in there out of the pumps, and we’ll try and put a screen on the front of the outfall, in order to keep the seaweed from coming back. … We have it shut down until we can remove the seaweed.”
The city and town expect to have the pilot program up and running by Thursday.
