Monitoring program helps beach goers
find good clean fun
By Suzy Fried, Editor
Salem, Massachusetts - Streams, culverts, and pipes that empty
onto or near beaches are a big draw for children who love to splash in their
warm, shallow waters. But according to Karen Hopkins, Program Director for
Salem Sound 2000 (SS2000), a local water quality organization, "They're
not safe places for those kids to be."
Stormwater that drains into Salem Sound
beaches from pipes like this one can be
contaminated with unhealthy sustances.
The water flowing from those outlets is known as stormwater - rainwater
that has flowed over lawns, fields, and paved surfaces into a storm drain
system. Old or faulty infrastructures may also leak untreated sewage into
those systems, and sometimes people deliberately dump harmful substances
into storm drains.
The stormwater that eventually empties into waterways can be a nasty
cocktail of automotive fluids, pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste, and
other ingredients that pollute swimming areas and shellfish beds. Bacteria
and viruses in the stormwater can cause infections and illness, including
hepatitis.
When polluted stormwater mixes with bathing water in a coastal swimming
area, the resulting dilution is often great enough to prevent the bathing
water from being polluted. However, the point at which the stormwater
empties out of the drainage system can be highly polluted, particularly
during a rainstorm or within 24 hours of one.
Information swap
Last summer, SS2000 began providing water quality information on the
stormwater emptying onto public swimming beaches to several local health
boards in the Salem Sound area as part of its Clean Beaches and Streams
Program. In return, the boards of health in the five participating cities
and towns provide SS2000 with information on bathing beach water quality.
SS2000 compiles the stormwater and beach water information in a monthly
report and posts it at town and city halls and on its web site, and
publishes it in local newspapers. The report identifies which specific
beaches and stormwater outlets are safe for swimming or wading. The intent,
said Hopkins, is "to make the public aware so they can make informed
decisions about where they swim."
The state of Massachusetts requires
public and private beach operators to test bathing beach water quality
during the bathing season. If bacteria levels at a bathing beach exceed
state water quality standards for public health, the operator or owner of
the beach must close it to swimming and must post warning signs, according
to Howard Wensley, Director of the Division of Community Sanitation at the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Proposed state legislation being
considered by lawmakers this spring would increase the frequency of
state-required beach water quality testing from twice monthly to once a week
during the bathing season.
Neither current nor proposed state regulations -
nor new federal regulations that will take effect over the next three years
- mandate testing of water quality at stormwater outlets or posting of
warning signs at those outlets. Those actions are required only when a court
judgement mandates it, according to Dave Ferris, an Engineer at the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
With encouragement
from Salem Sound 2000, however, some towns and cities around the Sound are
taking action to inform beach goers that nearby stormwater outlets may be
polluted. The town of Marblehead, next door to Salem, has already posted
signs at stormwater outlets near its swimming beaches, according to town
Public Health Director Wayne Attridge.
Salem Health Agent Joanne Scott said
the city planned to post warning signs on stormwater outlets near bathing
areas, but became concerned about potential hazards to swimmers when the
metal signs are hidden by water during high tide. The city is reconsidering
where to install the signs, she said.
Filling a gap
SS2000's efforts to monitor stormwater outlets for problems
affecting water quality is filling in where some cities and towns lack the
time, money, and staff to check on stormwater collection systems. "I
can't possibly go to every outfall in town," said Mike Collins,
Assistant City Engineer for Salem. "They do that initial legwork."
Last year at one Salem swimming area, high levels of fecal coliform
(bacteria present in the colons of mammals) in samples collected from a
stormwater outlet indicated that raw sewage was entering the system. The
Salem Board of Health closed the beach as a precautionary measure while
public works crews found and then repaired a broken sewer line that had been
dumping 17,000 gallons/64,350 liters of raw sewage into the cove daily.
But
finding the means to fix problems is not easy, said Collins. "This is a
very old city. We're trying to keep an antique glued together here with a
minimum of resources."
The proposed state legislation would provide
some funds for towns and cities to carry out state requirements for beach
water testing, monitoring, and analysis. Massachusetts already provides
financial and technical assistance to help towns and cities deal with
stormwater issues. Salem Sound 2000 helped Salem secure nearly $100,000 in
state grants for stormwater pollution remediation.
But Collins said state
grants are often designed to address specific types of stormwater problems
and don't necessarily address every situation, such as when residential
sanitary systems are connected into stormwater collection systems instead of
into sewerage systems that treat waste before discharging it.
Collins ex-plained
that Salem originally built a single system to handle both stormwater and
sewage. As the city grew around the turn of the 20th century, it began to
install a separate, new sewer system, intending to use the old pipes only
for stormwater. "Sometimes when they were reconnecting, they missed a
house connection and that's a lot of what we're dealing with," he said.
Scouts Ben Hoskins (left), Eddie Laber (right) and
assistant Cub Scout Master Bart Hoskins (center)
stencil a message advising, "Dump no waste,
drains to river," in a Salem Massachusetts park
near the tidal North River.
Spreading the word
Hopkins is pleased with what she described as the
program's promising start last year, but added, "I think we have a lot
of work to do as far as the public education goes." She hopes that when
people learn more about how stormwater can affect their beaches, they will
encourage municipal officials to address the causes of water quality
problems, and will support efforts to update old infrastructures.
This is
happening in Marblehead, according to Attridge, who said that town plans to
invest an unprecedented $6 million in measures to address stormwater
pollution. SS2000 has "really done a good job raising the consciousness
of stormwater runoff. They have become a wonderful ally," he said.
SS2000 also hopes a greater understanding of stormwater pollution will also
motivate people to take individual actions to prevent it, such as cleaning
up after pets outdoors, and disposing of wastes such as used motor oil
properly --- rather than dumping it into their neighborhood storm drains.
Hopkins does not expect an instant conversion, though. "I think it's a
relatively new issue for people, so I think it's going to take hearing the
message several times for the public to catch on."
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