By Adam Swift
The water quality at the majority of Boston Harbor’s public beaches remains high, but King’s Beach is once again the outlier in the latest Save the Harbor/Save the Bay water quality report.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay released its 2023 Beach Season Water Quality Report Card at a press conference with Democratic Whip Congresswoman Katherine Clark, DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo, and other local and state leaders at Revere Beach on Monday.
This year’s report card used data from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to survey the water quality of each of the region’s public beaches in Lynn, Nahant, Revere,
Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy and Hull.
2023 was the rainiest summer in the Boston area since 1955, resulting in an overall water quality safety rating of 85% for the Boston Harbor area beaches, down from the previous dry year’s 93 percent score which tracks bacteria levels at the Boston Harbor beaches.
The water quality safety rating for King’s Beach fell from 74 percent during the drier 2022 season to 55 percent last year. The six-year safety average for the beach is 70 percent.
“King’s Beach is an outlier in the Boston area,” said Save the Harbor Executive Director Chris Mancini. “It’s a difficult and complex infrastructure challenge that has required dozens of meetings between stakeholders at every level of community and government. We’re very lucky to have such a committed, collaborative group from Lynn, Swampscott, the state and the federal government focused on trying to turn this beach around.”
Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson said the King’s Beach Steering Committee works collaboratively on a regional scale to address the water quality issues at the beach.
“Since day one, our administration has been committed to ensuring the City is steadfast in our efforts to reduce pollution and doing everything possible to be aggressive in achieving a beach that is clean and safe,” Nicholson stated in an email.
The mayor added that Lynn is an environmental justice community and has been significantly disadvantaged by the pollution at King’s Beach.
“We have prioritized source elimination and illicit discharge detection and elimination (IDDE) programs in our sewer system,” stated Nicholson. “In Lynn, which has a relatively new sewer system, that has meant identifying and resolving improper connections in the drainage systems impacting the beach. However, even with successful source elimination efforts, complementary solutions would be necessary to address polluted runoff and keep King’s Beach open and swimmable for longer periods of time.
“Therefore, the committee has been working together to determine the best solution for the beach to complement the source elimination work,” Nicholson continued. “We have initiated various tests and commenced pilot programs that aim to work with our existing efforts.”
Nicholson said the city’s goal is to improve the water quality and other environmental conditions of King’s Beach in order to have both a cleaner and more accessible beach for all of its residents.
Save the Harbor hopes their annual report card makes it easy to understand how safe and clean these places are, even as they work to address the effect of sea level rise on recreational beaches
and the impact of increasing storms on water quality in some areas.
“Even amid all the ecological challenges of last year’s historic rainfall, our beaches were able to persevere and continue welcoming visitors,” said Clark. “That resilience was a policy choice — the result of transformational investments in Boston Harbor. Now, we have to make another choice: mobilizing unprecedented action to brace these treasures against the impacts of climate change.
“That’s why I’m fighting every day to bring home our share of the historic climate investments we’ve enacted under President Biden.”
Arrigo said the DCR is committed to ensuring the beaches are safe, clean and swimmable spaces for families and residents to cool down at.
“Despite last year’s record rainfall, our Metro Boston beaches continue to be some of the cleanest in the country,” said Arrigo. “Throughout the summer, DCR conducts regular water quality testing at all of our waterfronts, and we work diligently with our partners at the Department of Public Health to post the results to our website and Park Alerts Page as quickly as possible. We’re grateful to our partners like Save the Harbor and the legislators on the Metro Beaches Commission for their support in ensuring our beaches are welcoming places and our residents have clean water for recreation.”
Save the Harbor Deputy Director Kristen Barry noted that in urban infrastructure, an inch of rain can quickly flush out bacteria that builds up in drains and stormwater pipes, making some days where it is unsafe to swim.
“That bacteria is the main public health concern – the good news is we have a 9-foot tide cycle twice a day and within 24 hours our beaches are again as clean as ever,” said Barry.
Currently the beaches use a posting and flagging system to alert the public to high bacteria levels. But the best technology available takes 24 hours to return results, meaning by the time the posting goes up, the information is already out of date.
“Until technology can catch up, our best advice is to follow the 24-hour rule and simply wait a day after a significant rainfall before returning to water,” said Mancini. “Except in South Boston where you can swim every day of the year. In the meantime, the Report Card has been a great tool to show the great overall quality of our urban beaches. We hope it will give people the confidence to get out and enjoy our spectacular state beaches.”