Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, Kennebunk Beach, Ogunquit Beach and Long Sands Beach in York tested as having unsafe water pollution levels on at least one day in 2018, according to a recently released national report.
The report, put out Wednesday by Environment America Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group, creates a more dire picture than is happening in Maine, said Meagan Sims of Maine Healthy Beaches.
“It’s hard when you’re looking at a nationwide study, because you’re looking at all beaches in every state, while every beach is so different,” she said.
The report gathered its information from sampling at local, state and federal levels, submitted to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council’s Water Quality Portal. In determining the beaches that were problematic in 2018, the report used the Environmental Protection Agency’s most conservative “beach action value” threshold of 60 colony-forming units of enterococcus bacteria per 100 milliliters of water.
Sims said the 60-unit level is not used uniformly across the country and is not used in Maine. The EPA approved a beach action value in Maine and other states — including New Hampshire and Massachusetts — of 104 colony-forming units per 100 ml of water, she said. Anything above 104 is considered elevated in Maine, she said.
“When the EPA proposed potentially lowering the value, we did an analysis to see what was best for our beaches, and it was determined that 104 was protective for Maine,” she said. This level was reviewed and approved by EPA.
Maine has a robust beach monitoring system with volunteers throughout the summer collecting weekly samples that are tested to make sure they do not exceed the 104 threshold. Sims said Maine Healthy Beaches completed its report for 2018 and found at least 93 percent of all beaches tested were below the threshold.
The report, using the more stringent 60 colony-forming unit level, indicated that of 14 samples taken at Long Sands Beach there were potentially five “unsafe days” in 2018. Of 14 samples taken at Ogunquit Beach, using the 60 colony-forming units, there were potentially seven unsafe days.
In Maine, she said, “we know that there can be issues where freshwater” meet the ocean — such as at the mouths of rivers, at a stormwater outfall or at a sewer drain. More often than not, samples spike above 104 after a rainfall, when any bacteria in the system might flush out.
Kennebunkport Town Manager Laurie Smith said, “We have posted at the beach that when we get rainfall of over an inch you need to be concerned at the two outlets of the river, Batson and Little. If we have had over an inch of rain, do not go swimming at those two ends of the beach.
The center of the beach is typically clear and fine and water quality is not an issue there. When you don’t have an inch of rain, I will tell you that our water quality testing this year has been excellent.”
Ogunquit Town Manager Pat Finnigan said rainfall over an inch often causes spikes in the testing at Riverside Beach, which is located towards the Ogunquit River.
“The report doesn’t identify which beach in town the readings come from, but the one we sometimes test high on is Riverside Beach because it’s a river and there’s very little water movement. Especially on Riverside Beach, where young families with children often swim, we are more cautious with our advisories,” Finnigan said.
She said the lifeguards test weekly through the Maine Healthy Beaches Program. Town officials will often leave advisories posted longer than necessary out of an abundance of caution. The signage directs people to the Maine Healthy Beaches website, where they can check bacteria levels for themselves.
“Overall, our water quality is very good and safe. We want to give people information, and help them understand the connection between things that they do like washing cars, or putting dog waste into the catch basins, that gets into the river. We hope people will understand it’s the natural causes that we can’t control and then the other things we do try to control. We have a really conscientious water quality monitoring program,” Finnigan said.
When there are beaches known to be more problematic, such as Goose Rocks Beach, additional testing is conducted during the summer as it known to spike more often. There, 39 samples were taken at two different locations indicating 14 potentially unsafe days at one site, and nine at the other, using the 60 colony-forming unit level.
Sims said she has a problem with the methodology, saying it is “misleading” to lump Goose Rocks in with a beach like Long Sands, which takes much fewer samples.
Smith said Kennebunkport has ramped up the number of tests done in a summer for the second year in a row, and the more tests you do, the more positives or negatives you get.
“What we will tell you is that we would not let people swim at the beach if we were really concerned about people’s health,” she said.
In the two years she’s been in Ogunquit, Finnigan said she has only closed the beach one day, earlier this year. A private home had a sewer discharge prompting Finnigan to close the beach as a precaution, even though water quality testing came back fine.
Main Beach in Ogunquit, which fronts the open ocean, is tested weekly but doesn’t have water quality issues.
“If there’s a problem at Riverside, all you have to do is walk a few feet and you’re over on the other side,” Finnigan said.
As for York’s beaches, Parks and Recreation Director Robin Cogger said it’s important for the public to know the department takes the issue seriously.
“We try to encourage families with small children to wear swim diapers. We turn over the sand on a daily basis, exposing the sand to the sun. We do three trash runs a day,” she said. “I am very confident that our water is clean.”
Smith said they are taking water quality monitoring a step further at Goose Rocks Beach, and have begun DNA testing to determine where the pollution is coming from. While initial results are from a small sample, she said they have found that it’s sometimes from animals and doesn’t always have a human element.
“Our first concern is public health and safety, and we notify people when that is a challenge. We are very responsive to it, and have a good plan in place to keep our beachgoers safe,” Smith said.