Lighted Path to Fix Swampscott's King Beach Endorsed: Select Board

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The Swampscott Select Board took a preliminary — yet potentially highly significant — step toward the cleanup of one of the most polluted beaches in the state on Wednesday night when it endorsed Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald's recommendation to proceed with the continued study and potential pursuit of an ultraviolet light system to disinfect stormwater runoff onto King's Beach.

Fitzgerald had sought the go-ahead as part of a regional plan with Lynn to turn the tides on decades of beach closures and public health dangers at the shared coastline.

"I want a solution here that in three years — and that still seems like an awfully long time — but in three years we could cut a ribbon and say: 'We've got a beach that's safe,'" Fitzgerald said. "We're going to bring that beach back to a productive reuse."

Under the proposed pathway to a functional beach, a regional task force of experts and stakeholders, which included Fitzgerald and Lynn leaders, recommended the ultraviolet light system as a primary disinfectant of bacteria in the stormwater runoff, which resulted in the beach being deemed unsafe at least 32 percent of days in 2021, according to a Save the Harbor/Save the Bay survey that put it essentially tied with Dorchester's Tenean Beach as the most polluted in the state over the past six years.

While further study and testing will be needed, the UV system, in conjunction with ongoing source-elimination efforts, could make the beach 85 to 97 useable in about 3.1 years.

Wednesday night's endorsement does not bind Swampscott to any building or funding commitments for the UV system but does provide a path forward for a decades-old shoreline scourge.

The UV system — which is being used in Newport, Rhode Island — was determined to be more effective and quicker to implement than chemically treating the stormwater with chlorine.

"Our trip down Newport was absolutely fascinating," Fitzgerald said. "It was fascinating to see the banks of ultraviolet lights literally plugged into a huge culvert irradiate the bacteria. It was fascinating to see the whole system work.

"It literally was a huge piece of modern technology that looked like it could fit in a very confined, tight location."

The task force recommended pursuing further study — as well as federal and state infrastructure funding potentially available for capital costs — on the UV solution, while a second phase of extending the outpour pipe 4,500 feet or more into the ocean to dilute the bacteria remains a consideration for longer-term assurances. The detriment of pursuing only the pipe extension is that the task force determined it would take up to three times as long to implement because of regulatory requirements while costing more than twice as much as the UV system.

The task force also considered plans that included relocating the outpour further down the coastline, which was eliminated because of its high cost and relative lack of effectiveness given that the bacteria could often flow right back down the beach, and pumping the stormwater through the Lynn treatment plan, which was eliminated out of environmental and possible health concerns.

"We're trying to find a resilient solution here that's going to give the public, and give everybody, a sense of confidence that the funds that we invest are going to ensure that beach is going to return to being one of the safest beaches in the Commonwealth," Fitzgerald said.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)