MA Beaches Not As Clean As You Think: Report

Plenty of summer days remain for Massachusetts residents to enjoy the waters, but a new report finds that the Bay State’s beaches might not always be safe for swimming.

Looking at bacteria sampling data collected by authorities in 29 states and Puerto Rico, the report's authors found that more than half the beaches tested nationwide were potentially unsafe for swimming on at least one day in 2018. The analysis also showed that 610 beaches were potentially unsafe on 25 percent of the days they were tested for bacteria.

Beaches cited in the report posed a swimming risk if the bacteria samples exceeded the U.S. EPA’s “Beach Action Value,” which corresponds to an estimated 32 illnesses for every 1,000 swimmers.

Along the East Coast, from south Florida to central Maine, 48 percent of the 2,373 beaches tested were unsafe for swimming for at least one day in 2018. In Massachusetts, 223 of 588 beaches sampled for bacteria in 2018, or 38 percent, were potentially unsafe for swimmers on at least one day.

Among the dirtiest locations were on Nahant Beach, where sampling showed 39 potentially unsafe days out of 92 tested, and on Quincy Beach, where 18 of 93 samples at one point showed potentially unsafe conditions.

The report warns that beaches should not be compared to each other because testing takes place on different schedules and at different frequencies.

Waters polluted with sewage or fecal matter can make swimmers sick, and millions of waterborne illnesses are reported each year in the United States, the report says. The report by the Environment America Research & Policy Center looked at data for 2018 collected by local and federal officials from 4,523 beaches.

To make waters safer for swimming, the report says pollution from urban runoff, sewage and manure needs to be curtailed.

Read the full report from the Environment America Research & Policy Center.