The UV pilot program has been shut down after concluding on Aug. 18, after it had been determined that enough data had been collected to evaluate the success of the pilot.
According to a statement from the City of Lynn and the Town of Swampscott, the decision to halt the program early will help the financial aspects of the initiative going forward.
“To date, the project has come close to exhausting the originally approved budget. Shutting down two weeks earlier than planned will allow us to stay within the originally approved budget without having to seek additional funds,” the statement said.
“Based on the analysis of the project team, the City of Lynn and the Town of Swampscott have determined that over the course of the pilot, enough data has been successfully collected to evaluate the system’s effectiveness,” the statement continued. “This pilot program has been a strong collaboration, and we are proud of the work done by all partners involved to achieve a cleaner, more accessible beach for both of our communities.”
The two parties will begin the process of evaluating all the data collected throughout the summer in order to determine the next steps for King’s Beach.
“We do have to wait for the analysis, but I’m feeling very encouraged by what we’ve seen so far, and on top of that, it was a successful collaborative effort from the Town and City,” King’s Beach advocate Liz Smith said.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay Executive Director Chris Mancini gave his thoughts on the development.
“Once we have a chance to look at the data, we’ll analyze the actual success rate and the passing rate, but we also have to understand how it would have been compared to previous years if we didn’t have the UV test,” Mancini said. “It seems like the test did show an improvement to water quality, and I thought we anecdotally saw more people in the water this summer.”
Swampscott Interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta also commented on the progress made.
“Overall, I think the pilot was successful,” he said. “We’ve accumulated data that we’re going to be able to evaluate, Kleinfelder (an Engineering Consultant firm) will be coming out with a report within the next four to six weeks, and with that data, we’re going to figure out the next step.”
Cresta said the part of the project he’s most proud of is the collaboration between the City and the Town.
“There was some finger-pointing in the past, but over the last year and a half, we’ve done a lot of good work together,” Cresta said.
