Sewer Overflow Adds To Swampscott King's Beach Troubles

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott's troubled King's Beach was dealt another dose of pollution this weekend with a combined sewer overflow out of Lynn Friday night.

The beach — consistently ranked as one of the most polluted oceanfronts in the state and off-limits to swimming for much of the past two months because of high bacteria levels both on the Lynn and Swampscott side of the border — was subject to the discharge Saturday night because of the heavy rains, according to the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission.

The Commission said the discharge happened into the surface waters of King's Beach and Nahant Bay between 6 and 10 p.m. on Saturday night with the effects of the overflow expected to last about two days.

"The overflow consists, or likely consists, of untreated or partially treated sewage and waste," Lynn officials said. "Avoid contact with these waters for 48 hours after the discharge or overflow ceases due to increased health risks from bacteria and other pollutants."

The Swampscott Select Board held a public discussion on the ongoing efforts to clean the waters of King's Beach and Stacy's Brook on July 19 with Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald expressing some optimism that there is "positive momentum" behind possible solutions — including a UV light treatment that engineers said could make the beach swimmable more than 90 percent of summer days once implemented

But some residents expressed frustration both at the pace of the progress on a solution, the frequency of the testing and the signage informing Lynn and Swampscott residents of the water conditions, and at least perceived shortcomings when it comes to addressing the source contamination from leaky sewer pipes in both Swampscott and neighboring Lynn.

Liz Smith, who spoke at the July 19 meeting and who is a member of the Save Kings Beach Facebook community, said concerned residents helped notify those in the area of the overflow before Swampscott sent out a robocall and email Sunday morning.

She said Lynn Water & Sewer does not have the required sign at the outfall location nor are there any permanent signs at the Swampscott beach entrances as required by the new notification regulations.

"Citizens took things into their own hands — I put out warning signs early (Sunday) morning at all King's Beach entrances in Swampscott and Lynn," she told Patch on Monday. "Others are putting up caution tape in the belief access to the beach should be cut off entirely after a CSO."

(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.)